• *° 












AN 




a 



€xpm\lu nnli (Bxplanntion 



OF THE MODERN PHENOMENA CALLED 



SPIRIT MANIFESTATIONS. 



COMPRISING THB 



RAPPINGS, MOVEMENTS, WRITING MEDIUMS, 
AND VARIOUS OTHER PHENOMENA 
f CONNECTED THEREWITH, 



£xii^cts flroft) 5jff client 3D rifely, 

Of BEMARKABLE INSTANCES OF PRESENTIMENT, PRO- 
PHECYING, VISIONS, CLAIRVOYANCE, ETC. ETC. 



By BENJAMIN FRANKLIN COOLEY, 

THB GREAT PSYCHOLOGIST AND INDEPENDENT CLAIRVOYANT. 



I beliere that the phenomena called " Spirit Manifestations," can b» explained 
by natural laws mid principles, independent of a theory brought out lrom the abodt* 
•f departed spirits. Author. 



v* 

SPRINGFIELD, MASS. 
PUBLISHED BY WILLIAM COLOMY. 

H. 8. TAYLOR, PRINTEll. 

1852. 



,-<? 

»<£* 



Entered according to an Act of Congress, in the year 1852, 

By William Colomy, 
In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Mass. 



INTRODUCTION. 



In bringing out before the world these few 
broken sentences for public inspection, we 
would not have you believe that we have 
any other intention or design, but to benefit 
as far as possible our fellow-men, by the dis- 
closure of truths that we have obtained by 
impartial and earnestly-pursued investiga- 
tions, with reference to the modern phenom- 
ena, called " Spirit Manifestations," which is 
awakening all classes of minds. Having for 
some time been a believer in the verity of 
the spiritual nature of these phenomena, and 
also had the opportunity of being what is 
called a " medium," I have taken much time 
and trouble to trace out the real causes that 
were operating to produce such mysterious 
effects, and I now am confident to believe 
that these operations are fait new phases in 



INTRODUCTION. 



the fields of mind and matter, and the solu- 
tion is found in Electricity, Electrical Psy- 
chology, and Clairvoyance. 

For, in the yet unexplored fields of the 
electric element, and the application of this 
same element as a medium from matter to 
mind, and also the yet dark and misty realms 
of clairvoyance, with the intuitive principles 
of mind — all these, taken in connection, 
present a wide and almost unbounded field, 
respecting which the great mass of minds 
know but little. And as many friends have 
often requested us to publish to the world the 
results of our somewhat extended investiga- 
tions, we have at last reluctantly yielded to 
such requests ; thinking that perhaps we 
might have obtained some ideas that would 
be aids to the minds of the earnest seekers 
for the truth, respecting this all-engrossing 
phenomena. But to one class of minds we 
have a word to say, that does not pertain to 
this phenomena. That class comprises the 
critic, whose greatest passion seems to be to 
seek and trace out grammatical errors, and 
hurl them as cudgels to the head of the wri- 
ter. Now, dear critic, we pray you forbear ; 
for we do not present the following pages as 



INTRODUCTION. 



a regularly prepared and studied book, but 
merely as broken sentences, extracts, and il- 
lustrations. And hoping that the reader may 
obtain some ideas that will aid him in his re- 
searches respecting this new phenomena, we 
submit the following pages to him and the 
public. 



1* 



SPIRIT MANIFESTATIONS. 



THIS NEW PHENOMENA. 

This new phenomena, which is moving and at- 
tracting the attention of all minds, is truly wonderful 
in its nature, inasmuch as it seems to operate as a spe- 
cies of mania, affecting every class of mind to some 
degree, and carrying them all to some extreme, either 
for the purpose of establishing some isolated doctrinal 
principle, or building up some new theory or system, 
which, if carried to the extent that it probably will be, 
unless some effective check shall be put to it, will cause 
as many different beliefs, doctrines, and religious, as has 
ever before been established by the wrong and discor- 
dant systems of religious education of all past ages. 
Why then is it not time for us to investigate this prin- 
ciple of mind, and learn as far as possible the causes 
that are producing such effects ? Many will and do 
say, that lending their time for the purpose of bring- 
ing out a true solution of such a trifling affair, is be- 



PHENOMENA. 



neath their dignity. Well, we will speak kindly of such 
individuals, but we must be permitted to give our opin- 
ion respecting them, and it is this ; we believe it is well 
that such a class of minds are contented and willing to 
remain quiet, for we are taught by reason to believe 
that, should such a class of discordant minds, (discor- 
dant because their organization is bad,) take the task 
of investigating such a phenomena, we are sure that 
their conclusions and theories would partake of the an- 
gular form, instead of a true, unbiased, and harmonious 
theory, which alone had a foundation upon the unerring 
laws and principles of nature. Well, then, we will en- 
deavor to believe that all that is, is for the best, and 
that Right and Truth will be the final result of this 
phenomena, even as it has appeared to be of other 
equally startling and wonderful powers of the human 
mind, or the operations of fancy and imagination in the 
realms of intellect. 



DELUSION. 

Of the numerous religions of the day, we are not 
able to find one but what has some points of delusion. 
And why should it be so ? asks the free thinker. Well, 
in our own feeble manner of expressing our opinions, 
we will endeavor to give our reason why it is so. In 
the first place, we have seen the desire that every indi- 



DELUSION. 9 

vidual possesses respecting belief; and in taking that 
straight forward course of reasoning from desire to be- 
lief, and from the belief to the delusion of the beliefs, 
we shall probably be able to arrive at the reason why 
so many are deluded respecting the different creeds, 
denominations, churches, and religions, of the present 
time. In the first place, we will study the different or- 
ganizations of the human mind ; and during that course 
of study, we shall learn that the human mind possesses 
susceptibilities which differ one from the other in some 
respects ; and arriving at this conclusion, we learn that 
man is individualized, and differ one from the other in 
some single point of organization. And when we ar- 
rive to this fact, and establish that point firmly in the 
mind, then we may begin to understand why we are 
not all capable of entertaining the same opinions re- 
specting the same things. The individuality of the 
human mind will give the true solution respecting the 
different delusions, even as it will give a solution of the 
different beliefs. 

We will here give a production which purports to 
come from the spirit of Whitfield. It was rapped out 
during a sitting of a number of individuals, for the pur- 
pose of getting spirit communications. It is as fol- 
lows : 

" You speak of delusion and discord in your socie- 
ties of earth, and speak out your desires, and pray in 
spirit, that the human family may become as one har- 
monious soe.iety. But that cannot be, until the Ofgao- 



10 PREVIOUS BELIEF. 

ized societies of Ignorance, Bigotry, and Superstition 
are broken down, and then all delusions will flee from 
the minds of men, and then wisdom will become the 
crowning glory of the human mind, out from which 
will emanate the frame-work for a true state of society, 
wherein shall reign Universal Harmony." 

The above communication or production corresponds 
to the wish and desire of the persons that were togeth- 
er at the time it was rapped out ; and that will clearly 
account for it, as desire generally controls the mind ; 
and at that time all minds present partook of nearly 
the same desire. And accordingly, whether Christian, 
Heathen, or Mahomedan, the communication will cor- 
respond to the desire of their minds, even if it be to 
substantiate the worst forms of delusion. 



MY PREVIOUS BELIEF. 

As all minds are seeking for some belief respecting 
their immortality, and all are establishing some kind of 
belief respecting their destiny, even so has the individ- 
ualized spirit that is encased by this mortal body, whose 
hand moves the pen to write these words. Yes, even 
so does this spirit possess a desire to obtain a belief; 
and it has already been the possessor of many deep and 
strong desires for a belief; yet it finds that the belief of 
yesterday is removed to-day, for a better and an ever- 



PBEVI0US BELIEF. 11 

increasing and progressive system of harmonious beliefs. 
Yet we find that this system of beliefs is never changed 
in respect to the self-evident facts of unoriginated and 
eternal laws of spirit, nature, and of God. Yet we 
find our beliefs changed according to the degree of 
knowledge that we may obtain from day to day ; and 
according to this desire was our belief formed respect- 
ing the new electrical and mental phenomena. At our 
first investigation, we were convinced that the sounds 
were caused by some unseen power or principle. This 
was our first established belief, and this belief was es- 
tablished by self-evident facts, laws, and principles. 
And as it was the general belief that all the sounds and 
movements were caused by spirits, even so did our 
mind possess the desire that it might be so ; for we 
were persuaded to think that if such were in reality 
communications from the spirit spheres, the light and 
knowledge conveyed from the great immortals to men 
of this rudimental sphere, would be of vast importance 
and great worth to poor, ignorant, and grovelling hu- 
manity. Yet, although we possessed this strong and 
burning desire, we did not arrive to the established be- 
lief that the whole phenomena was caused by intelli- 
gent, unseen, unorganized spirits, although we admitted 
such a possibility. 

This, then, was our first position, and our first belief; 
but after a long and impartial investigation of the sub- 
ject' we are obliged to say that we do not believe that 
a thousandth part of these manifestations have au^ht 
to do with any but tin; Spirits encased in bodies of Mesh. 



12 IMAGINATIOX. 

Yet while taking this position, which judgment and 
reason hath assigned us, we would not have the reader 
understand that we wholly discard the idea of a com- 
munication with the spirits of the departed, for we have 
had evidence sufficient to cause us to believe that the 
spirit world holds a close proximity to this, our rudi- 
mental sphere. But our object in making the results 
of our investigations and experiments public, is to aid 
others to obtain the true solution of this new phenom- 
ena, without falling into deep errors respecting it, as 
there is a susceptibility in the human mind which will 
cause it to believe either too much or not enough. 
Can the reader say that this is an unfair course to pur- 
sue ? We think not. 



IMAGINATION. 

Imagination, the element in which the poets roam, 
has much to do with all the beliefs of men, and it has 
always had much to do with all the religions of the 
past and the present times. For every mind possesses 
it in some degree, and it will operate for good or evil, 
or for harmony or discord, according to the organization 
of the individual mind, or classes of minds. If the 
mind possesses much of the marvellous, then in that 
mind will there be a greater play of the imagination. 
And in the mind of the person who is magnetized in 



IMAGINATION. 13 

the first degree, we see the same results as in those who 
are not ; for whenever the electrical condition of the 
person called the medium is changed, then that person 
will fancy and imagine that he sees many things that 
are not in existence ; for the intense operations of the 
mind will cause spectres and illusions, that have never 
before been conceived of by the human mind. And 
we see too that when an operator in Electrical Psy- 
chology desires, he can cause the subject or person op- 
erated upon, to see all manner of imaginary beings, 
which have no existence excepting in the imagination 
of the operator. And he is also able to cause the per- 
son psychologized to see the articles of furniture move 
and take imaginary leaps from place to place, when in 
reality they do not move. And so, the person will of- 
ten imagine that he hears sounds, when there is no 
sound. This, then, shows how the mind may be wrought 
upon by imaginary ideas, and how easily people may 
fall into errors respecting subjects of a marvelous na- 
ture. Often have we witnessed such operations ; and 
we have been able to gain much instruction from them. 
We will now give a case for the purpose of informing 
the mind of the reader, and show how some of the 
wonderful occurrences may be accounted for. At times. 
when we have been sitting in a room where a number 
of persons have met together for the purpose of getting 
communications, and to witness other operations of the 
power of spirits, while we have been a spectator* but 
not one of the number that compose the circle, We 
have heard those in the Circle saw that they heard 
•J 



14 IMAGINATION. 

sounds, and saw movements of the table, and other ar- 
ticles of furniture, and saw rays of light, when we 
were not able to either hear any sound, or see the 
movements of the furniture, neither to see any rays of 
light ; and immediately after, by trying experiments 
upon those of the circle who thought they heard sounds, 
saw movements, and rays of light, we find that they 
are psychological subjects, and do often psychologize 
their own brain, they being in a negative condition be- 
fore sitting to get the communications. This, then, we 
think accounts for a certain class of these wonderful 
stories, reported by such marvelous minds, who are not 
in reality capable of separating the real from the imag- 
inary. We will give a short communication received 
by the movement of the hand. It purports to come 
from the spirit of Benjamin Franklin : 

" The deep and incomprehensible laws of the elec- 
trical element, as it is found in all degrees of refine- 
ment, from the lower kingdoms of the natural world to 
the highest points of the etherial skies of the spirit 
spheres, can never be fully unfolded to the immortal 
spirits of God's eternal universe. Therefore be not too 
wise, but ever follow the pure desire of your minds, 
and learn the simple rudiments of your eternal lesson." 
B. Franklin. 

There may be much that will be beneficial to us in 
such communications 01 productions. Yet we do not 
believe that they come from spirits detached from the 
human or material body. 



15 



SOUNDS. 

That sounds are produced by connecting and dis- 
connecting the positive and negative poles of the elec- 
tric or galvanic battery, is a fact that no one can deny. 
And we will now ask what causes these sounds ? Well, 
all that we can say is, that they are produced by the 
positive and negative powers of electricity. Well, 
then, as there is a certain condition and application re- 
quisite to produce the sounds of the electric spark, and 
as that sound is produced by conveying the electricity 
through different metals as the medium, then why may 
there not be certain electrical conditions of the physi- 
cal body, or the nervous system, requisites and medi- 
ums by which to convey the electricity of the physical 
body through the nervous system, so as to produce 
sounds upon articles of furniture, or upon any material 
object whatever ? From experience, we believe that 
these sounds are produced by a certain negative elec- 
trical condition ; so that the mind by its will or desire 
can throw off the electricity of the body, through the 
nervous system as medium. And the electrical cur- 
rents thus thrown off will produce the sounds that so 
many marvelous minds wish to attribute to spirits of 
the departed. From the psychological experiments 
which we have performed upon many individuals, who 
are mediums and those who are not, we find that the 
same sounds can be produced independent of the spir- 
its of the departed. So, therefore, we find the solution 
ol the mystery, without entering the spirit world. \\ Q 



16 ELECTRICITY. 

have ever believed that if these communications had 
come from the higher spheres, they would have been 
more truthful and reliable. But while making this 
statement of the result of the above experiments, we 
would not have the reader understand that we wholly 
discard the idea of a communication and close proxim- 
ity of the spheres beyond, and the world of spirits. 
But we make the statement to show that there may not 
be one of a thousand of what purport to be spirit com- 
munications, in reality spiritual. 



ELECTRICITY. 

The element that holds the closer proximity to intel- 
ligence, is Electricity. The whole universe is pervaded 
and governed by the life-principle of this element of 
nature, and the causes of all motion are found in the 
grosser or more refined nature of this element. And 
we find, also, that the different conditions of this ele- 
ment determine the different shades, from the darkness 
of the midnight heavens to the bright splendor of the 
noonday sun. And by a right course of study in refer- 
ence to the nature, power, and application of this 
mighty element, let us see if we cannot find out the 
causes of many wonderful phenomena, without going 
beyond this plane of material action in connection with 
mind. And we will here state, that we verily believe 



PSYCHOLOGY. 17 

that if the operations of this semi-intelligent agent were 
fully understood, as it operates in connection with the 
human mind, not one thousandth part of what are call- 
ed spirit communications, would be taken as such, or 
attributed to departed spirits ; but they would be attri- 
buted to this almost etherial element, as it operates in 
connection with the human mind. We see by experi- 
ments in Electrical Psychology, that the medium 
through which impressions are conveyed from the ope- 
rator to the subject, is electricity ; and distance and 
time are comparatively annihilated by and through the 
agency of this wonderful and powerful medium. We 
might here bring volumes of proof to substantiate that 
the position which we take is upheld by reason and 
self-evident laws and principles of mind and matter. 



PSYCHOLOGY. 

The Positive or Negative Psychological or Electrical 
conditions of the human mind and material body, bring 
out and present many startling and wonderful phenom- 
ena, which the great mass of minds do not at all un- 
derstand, and very few are they, who understand them 
even in a low degree. The power that one mind pos- 
sesses over another is truly wonderful ; it lies within 
the mind while in the positive electrical condition, to 
control in any manner he chooses, the mind in the negu- 
*2 



18 CLAIRVOYANCE. 

tive condition ; but it is not our intention at this time 
to theorize or philosophize upon this subject. All we 
wish is to bring the subject up before other minds more 
competent than our own to do justice to it ; we wish 
also to say that if the believers in the " Spirit Manifes- 
tations," will take the trouble to earnestly investigate 
this subject, and experiment upon it, in reference to the 
control of the thoughts of others, while in the Psycho- 
logized or negative state, and the influx of the impres- 
sions from one mind to another, we are sure they will 
come to the conclusions that we have come to, that is, 
that most of the communications which they take as 
coming from departed spirits, can be explained by the 
nature, power and application of electricity, or the 
positive and negative psychological condition of mind, 
and the susceptibility of the mind to influx of impres- 
sions of other minds however far distant, with the aid 
of clairvoyance. This, kind reader, is my just conclu- 
sion and honest opinion. 



CLAIRVOYANCE. 

The clairvoyant powers of the human mind have 
never as yet received the notice which they deserve. 
At the present time there are thousands of otherwise in- 
telligent minds, whft do not even realize that they pos- 
sess the power of seeing independent of the physical 



CLAIRVOYANCE. 19 

eye, and whenever the idea is advanced to their minds, 
that there is a power of mind, or a mental and spiritual 
eye that is capable of penetrating through material 
substances and taking cognizance of what is taking 
place at great distances from them, they lift up their 
hands with great horror and holy awe, and say, thou 
deluded, foolish man, why will you be so foolish as to 
believe such impossibilities. To such a class of minds 
let us say, you do not realize the powers that your own 
minds possess, for you have not cultivated the nobler 
powers of your natures, so therefore we shall deal 
gently with you, and endeavor to give you the truths 
we have been able to learn by the clairvoyant vision of 
our own minds. Three years since, the clairvoyant 
powers of our mind and spirit were developed and 
brought out by the aid of magnetism ; and from the 
three years experience that we have had in this field, 
we have been enabled thereby to comprehend rightly, 
the laws and principles to a high degree, through all the 
kingdoms of the natural universe, and in a degree that 
of the spiritual and heavenly. That the mental or 
spirit eye can be opened, even while in the physical 
body, and enable man to view all the works of the ma- 
terial world, and by the aid of the intuitive principles 
of mind, make right applications and uses of all things 
in tin; kingdoms throughout nature, is a truth, that man 
in his wrongly educated condition, is not able or pre- 
pared to comprehend, Yet we have reason to believe 
that the day is dawning, when man's interior nature will 
be illuminated, and that be will soon be prepared to 



20 CLAIRVOYANCE. 

comprehend and understand, that he is in reality but 
little lower than the angels ; when the powers of his 
mind and spirit are brought out, in a degree, so that he 
may view his position and behold the standard upon 
which he should place himself. We might write vol- 
umes in reference to the clairvoyant powers of man, 
but the limits of this small work will not allow of it ; 
but in a larger forthcoming work, we propose to deal at 
greater length upon this great and all absorbing theme. 
For the purpose of illustrating the clairvoyant powers of 
the human mind, we choose rather to bring instances 
of other persons, than to bring instances of our own 
powers, although we might bring hundreds of tests that 
have been put to us, and in which we have always been 
able to satisfy those that brought them. And for the 
instruction and reflection of the reader, we will give 
some well attested instances of the clairvoyant powers, 
of Emanuel Swedenborg, who was a Swede by birth, 
born at Stockholm, Sweden, 1688; and as he is exten- 
sively known as the founder of the new church, and as 
a spiritual and mystical writer, it will be unnecessary 
for me to do aught but mention his name, and relate 
some instances of his clairvoyant powers. We have 
seen the same instances published in many different 
books, but we believe we have never seen them related 
in so plain and comprehensive a manner, as in the 
Shekinah, a quarterly, edited by S. B. Brittan, a very 
able and beautiful writer upon vital, mental and spirit- 
ual phenomena. The following then is a copy of those 
instances of clairvoyance, taken from the Shekinah. 



• «LA.IRVOYANCE. 21 

" In a letter to the Librarian of the King of Russia, 
bearing date 1782, a Mr. Springer, for many years res- 
ident in London as Swedish Consul, a gentleman whose 
character for truthfulness was unquestioned, narrates — 
That Swedenborg, being about to sail from London 
to Sweden, wished him to procure him a good Captain. 
He accordingly agreed with a certain Captain Dixon, 
and as he parted with Swedenborg, he inquired of Capt. 
Dixon, if he had good and sufficient provisions." On 
this Swedenborg said, ' My friend, we shall not need a 
great quantity, for this day week, we shall by the aid 
of God, enter into the port of Stockholm by two o'clock.' 
On Captain Dixon's return, he related to me that the 
event happened exactly as SAvedenborg had foretold. 
Many instances of such clairvoyance might be told, sim- 
ilar to phenomena exhibited in our day. M. Springer also 
declares, that Swedenborg revealed to him many secrets 
concerning his deceased friends and enemies, and mat- 
ters of state, which could only have been known to him 
through tlie power of spiritual vision. 

The gardener and his wife, as we have remarked be- 
fore, were his only attendants. On the latter being 
questioned, by his friend, M. Robsam, whether she had 
ever observed any change in the countenance of her 
master, after his communion with spirits, she replied, 
that l entering one day into his room after dinner, I saw 
bis eyes like unto a very bright flame; 1 drew back, 
raying in the name of God, Sir, what has happened 
extraordinary to you, for you have a very peculiar kind 



22 CLAIRYOYANCB. 

of appearance ? What kind of a look have I ? asked 
he. I then told him what had struck me. ' Well, 
well/ replied he, ' do not be frightened ; the Lord has 
so disposed my eyes, that, by them, spirits may see 
what is in our world.' In a short time, this appearance 
passed away, as he said it would. I know when he has 
been conversing with heavenly spirits, for there is a 
pleasure and a calm satisfaction in his countenance, 
which charms those that see it ; but after he has con- 
versed with evil (undeveloped ?) spirits, he has a sor- 
rowful look.' 

Count Hopken, the Prime Minister to the King of 
Sweden, although he thought so well of his doctrines, 
that he recommended them to the King as the best re- 
ligion for a new colony, once asked Sweden borg why 
he made public his visions and conversations with spirits, 
as they had a tendency to bring into ridicule and con- 
tempt doctrines, in other respects, so reasonable. But 
Swedenborg replied, ' that he was commanded to make 
them public by the Lord.' 

Of the famous John Wesley's experience of Swe- 
denborg's character as a Seer, we give the story as we 
find it. ' Among Wesley's preachers in 1772, was a 
Mr. Smith, a man of piety and integrity, afterwards a 
minister of the New Church. Mr. Noble, Minister 
of Hanover Street Chapel, London, and the author of 
an appeal in behalf of the views and doctrines of the 
New Church, had heard the anecdote as resting upon 
his authority, and he wrote to Mr. Hawkins, a celebra- 



CLAIRVOYANCE. 



23 



ted engineer and a friend of Mr. Smith, to learn the 
particulars. The following was the answer : — 

c Dear Sir: In answer to your inquiries, I am 
able to state that, I have a clear recollection of having 
repeatedly heard the Rev. Samuel Smith say, about 
1787 or '88, that, in the latter end of February, 1772, 
he, with some other preachers, was in attendance on 
the Rev. John Wesley, taking instructions, and assisting 
him in preparations for his great circuit, which Mr. 
Wesley was about to commence ; that while thus in 
attendance, a letter came to Mr. Wesley, which he 
perused with evident astonishment ; that after a pause 
he read the letter to the company, and that it was 
couched in nearly the following words — 

" Great Bath Street, Cold Bath Fields, Feb., 1772. 

c Sir : I have been informed in the world of spirits, 
that you have a strong desire to converse with me ; I 
shall be happy to see you, if you will favor me with a 
visit. 

' I am, Sir, 

Your humble servant, 

t Emanuel Swedenborg.' 

Mr. Hawkins adds that, Mr. Wesley frequently ac- 
knowledged to the company, that he had been very 
strongly impressed with a desire to see and converse with 
Swtdenborg, and that he In/d never mentioned (his de- 
sire to any one. Mr. Wesley returned in answer, that 
he was preparing for bis six. months' journey, but would 



24 CLAIRVOYANCE. # 

wait on Swedenborg on his return to London. Mr. 
Hawkins says, that Mr. Smith told him, he had been 
informed on good authority, that Swedenborg wrote 
back, that Mr. Wesley would then be too late, as he 
(Swedenborg) should take his final departure for the 
world of spirits, on the coming twenty-ninth of March 
when he accordingly died. This extraordinary circum- 
stance converted Mr. Smith. 

Of the more important and striking instances of his 
spiritual vision, we have only room for three or four 
here. Three of them are given in a letter of Kant, 
the most celebrated German metaphysician, and origi- 
nator of the Transcendental Philosophy, to a female 
friend. The first, to which however he only alludes — 
as being too well known to require narration — is, that 
Swedenborg related to the Queen Dowager of Sweden, 
Louisa Ulrica, the substance o{ a private interview had 
with her deceased brother, the Prince Royal of Prussia, 
afterwards Frederick the Second. Of this, M. Dieu- 
donne Thiebault, Professor of Belles Lettres in the 
Royal Academy of Berlin, gives the following narra- 
tive : — 

Mr. Thiebault says ; ' I know not on what occasion 
it was, that, conversing one day with the Queen, on the 
subject of the celebrated visionary, Swedenborg, we 
(the members of the Academy) expressed a desire, 
particularly M. Merian and myself, to know what opin- 
ion was entertained of him in Sweden. I, on my part, 
related what had been told me respecting him by 
Chamberlain d'Haman, who was still alive, and who 



CLAIRVOYANCE. 25 

had been Ambassador from Prussia, both to Holland and 
to France. It was, 'that his brother-in-law, the Count 
de Montville, Ambassador from Holland to Stockholm, 
having died suddenly, a shopkeeper demanded of his 
widow the payment of a bill for some articles of drape- 
ry, which she remembered had been paid in her husband's 
lifetime ; that the widow, not being able to find the 
shopkeeper's receipt, had been advised to consult with 
Sweden borg, who she was told, could converse with the 
dead whenever he pleased ; that she accordingly adopt- 
ed this advice, though she did so less from credulity 
than curiosity ; and at the end of a few days Sweden- 
borg informed her, that her deceased husband had tak- 
en the shopkeeper's receipt for the money on such a 
day, at such an hour, as he was reading such an article 
in Bayle's Dictionary in his cabinet ; and that his at- 
tention being called immediately afterwards to some 
other concern, he had put the receipt into the book to 
mark the place at which he left off ; where in fact it 
was found at the page described!' 

The Queen replied, that though she was little dis- 
posed to believe in such seeming miracles, she had been 
willing to put the power of M. Swedenborg, with 
whom she was acquainted, to the proof; that she had 
previously heard the anecdotes I had related, and it 
was one of those that had most excited her astonish- 
ment, though she had never taken the pains to ascertain 
the truth of it ; but that M. Sweden borg, having come 
one evening to her court, she had taken him iside and 
bagged him to inform himself of her deceased brother 
3 



26 CLAIRVOYANCE. 

the Prince Royal of Prussia, what he said to her at the 
moment of her taking leave of him for the Court of 
Stockholm. She added, that what she had said was 
of a nature to render it impossible that the Prince could 
have repeated it to any one, nor had it ever escaped her 
own lij)s ; that some days after, Swedenborg returned, 
when she was seated at cards, and requested that she 
would grant him a private audience ; to which she re- 
plied, he might communicate what he had to say before 
the company ; but Swedenborg assured her he could 
not disclose his errand in the presence of witnesses ; 
that in consequence of this intimation the Queen be- 
came agitated, gave her cards to another lady, and re- 
quested M. de Schwerin (who was also present when 
she related the story to us) to accompany her ; that 
they accordingly went together, into another apartment 
when she posted M. Schwerin at the door, and advanced 
towards the farther extremity of it with Swedenborg, 
who said to her, — ' You took, Madam, your last leave 
of the Prince of Prussia, your late august brother, at 
Charlottenburg, on such a day, and on such an hour of 
the afternoon ; as you were passing afterwards through 
the long gallery in the Castle of Charlottenburg, you 
met him again ; he then took you by the hand, and led 
you to such a window, where you could not be over- 
heard, and then said to you these words : — 

' The Queen did not repeat the words, but she pro- 
tested to us that they were the very same her brother 
had pronounced, and that she retained the most perfect 
recollection of them. She added, that she nearly faint- 



CLAIRVOYANCE. 27 

ed at the shock she experienced ; and she called on M. 
de Schwerin to answer for* the truth of what she had 
said ; who, in his laconic style, contented himself with 
saying, ' All you have said, Madam, is perfectly true, at 
least as far as I am concerned.' The Queen in conse- 
quence of this intelligence, was taken ill, and did not 
recover herself for some time. After she was come to 
herself, she said to those about her, ' There is only 
God and my brother who can know what he has just 
told me.' ' 

The second instance of vision given, by the great 
German metaphysician, Kant — another version probably 
of one given by us before — is : ' That the widow of 
the Dutch Envoy at Stockholm, was importuned by a 
goldsmith, soon after the death of her husband, for the 
payment of a bill which she was convinced had been 
paid by him. The amount was. considerable, but the 
receiptcould not be found. The lady desired of Swe- 
den borg, who she heard could converse with departed 
spirits, to enquire of her husband concerning it. He 
complied, and a short time after he stated to her that 
he had spoken with her husband, and that the receipt 
would be found in a secret drawer in a bureau, where it 
was accordingly discovered.' 

.Many of these stories, have there foundation in different 
facts, have doubtless been confounded one with another. 
The third story narrated by Kant, and which doubtless 
is so familiar to every reader, a- to render it unnecessa- 
ry for us to repeat it in detail, is k That Swedenborg 

made known at Gotten burg — and this, years ami year-, 



28 CLAIRVOYANCE. 

it should be rembered, before the days of Railways and 
Telegraphs, — that a fire wa*s at that moment breaking 
out at Stockholm, three hundred miles distant. He 
described the commencement, situation, progress, con- 
tinuance and cessation of the conflagration, very par- 
ticularly, to a company with whom he was dining. 
This was on Saturday. On Sunday morning he repeat- 
ed it to the Governor. On Monday evening a despatch 
arrived at Gottenberg, which confirmed his statement, 
and on Tuesday morning the royal Courier attested it 
with the utmost accuracy.' Kant declares ' that a 
friend, who informed him of the affair, had examined 
all the particulars, and found them well attested' — and 
this he considers ' to have the greatest weight of proof 
to use his own words, ' and to set the assertion of the 
extraordinary gift of Swedenborg out of all possibility of 
doubt.' Indeed no fact of history stands on better 
evidence than this. 

Dr. Stilling, Counsellor at the Court of the Duke of 
Baden, narrates as follows in his " Theory der Geister 
Kunde.' 

* In the year 1770 there was a merchant in Elber- 
field, with whom I lived seven years in the most inti- 
mate friendship. He was much attached to mystical 
writings ; but was a man of good sense, and one who 
would not tell a wilful untruth for the world. He trav- 
eled on business to Amsterdam, where, at the time 
Swedenborg was. Having heard and read a great deal 
of this extraordinary man, he went to see him. He 
found a very venerable and friendly looking old gentle- 



CLAIRVOYANCE. 29 

man who received him politely ; when the following 
dialogue took place. After some preparatory remarks, 
the Merchant said, ' I think you will not be displeased 
with a sincere friend of the truth, if he desires an irre- 
futable proof, that you really have communicated with 
the spiritual world ?' 

Swedenborg. — ' It would indeed be very wrong, if I 
were displeased ; but I believe I have given already 
proofs enough that cannot be refuted.' 

M. — ' Do you mean those respecting the Queen, 
the fire of Stockholm, and the mislaid receipt ?' 

& — ' Yes, I do ; and they are true.' 

M. — ' May I be so free as to ask for a proof of the 
same kind ?' 

S. — ' Why not ? with all my heart.' 

M. — ' I had a friend, a student of Divinity at Days- 
burg : a little before his decease we had an important 
conversation together; now could you learn from him 
what was the subject of it ?' 

S. — ' We wiil see : — come to me in a day or two : 
I will see if I can find your friend.' 

The merchant returned accordingly ; when Sweden- 
borg met him with a smile, and said, ' I have spoken 
with your friend: the subject of your discourse was, 

* the final restoration of all things.' 

Swedenborg then repeated to the merchant, word for 
word, what he and his deceased friend had maintained. 

• My friend/ saya Dr. Stilling, •■ turned pale, for this 
proof was irresistible. Perfectly convinced, my friend 

*3 



30 CLAIRVOYANCE. 

left the extraordinary man, and traveled back again to 
Eberfield.' 

Mr. Springer, the Swedish Consul before quoted, 
writes : — ' All that Swedenborg has related to me re- 
specting my deceased acquaintance, both friends and 
enemies, and the secrets that were between us, almost 
surpasses belief. He explained to me in what manner 
the peace was concluded between Sweden and the 
King of Prussia ; and he praised my conduct on that 
occasion ; he even told me who were the three great 
personages, of whom I made use in that affair, which 
nevertheless was an entire secret between them and me. 
I asked him how he could be informed of such particu- 
lars, and who had discovered them to him ? He an- 
swered, ' Who informed me of your affair with Count 
Ekelblad. You cannot deny the truth of what I have 
told you. Continue,' he added, ' to deserve his re- 
proaches ; turn not aside, either for riches or honors, 
from the path of rectitude, but on the contrary keep 
steadily in it, as you have done, and you will prosper.' ' 

In the narration of his correspondence with Wesley, 
the founder of the Methodists, we find an allusion of 
Sw j Jenborg to the time of his death. Other prophe- 
cies of his, in regard to the same event, are not want- 
ing. His friend Mr. Robsam writes : 

1 I met Swedenborg in his carriage, as he was setting 
off on his journey to London, the last time but one. I 
asked him how he could venture on such a voyage at 
the age of eighty years. 'Do you think,' I added, ' I 
shall see you any more?' 'Do not make yourself un- 



CLAIBVOYANCE. 31 

easy, my friend,' he replied, ' if you live we shall see 
one another again ; for I have another of these journeys 
to make after the present.' He returned accordingly. 
The last time of his leaving Sweden he came to see me 
the day he was setting off. I again asked him if we 
should see one another any more. He answered with 
a tender and affecting air, ' I do not know whether I 
shall return : but I am assured that I shall not die till I 
have finished the printing of my work entitled True 
Christian religion, which is the object of my journey. 
But if we do not see each other any more in this lower 
world, we shall meet in the presence of the Lord, if 
we have kept his commandments.' He did, accord- 
ingly, finish his last work here mentioned, at Amster- 
dam ; and he died at London not very long afterwards." 

Mr. and Mrs. Shearmith, with whom he lived in Lon- 
don, made their affidavit on solemn oath, before the 
Lord Mayor, some few years after the event, ' that he 
retained his senses and memory to the last, and that he 
foretold the day of his death a month beforehand.' 

In a letter from the Minister of the Swedish Luth- 
eran Church in London, who visited Swedenborg on 
his death-bed, and administered the sacrament to him, 
we read : — 

1 I asked him if he thought he was going to die, and 
he answered in the affirmative, upon which I requested 
him, since many believed that he had invented his new 
theological system merely to acquire i great name, 
(which he had certainly obtained.) to take this oppor- 
tunity oi proclaiming the real truth to the world, and 



32 CLAIRVOYANCE. 

to recant, either wholly or in part, what he had ad- 
vanced ; especially as his pretensions could now be of 
no further use to him. Upon this, Swedenborg raised 
himself up in bed, and placing his hand upon his breast 
said with earnestness, ' Everything that I have written 
is as true as that you now behold me ; I might have 
said much more had it been permitted me. After death 
you will see all ; and then we shall have much to say 
to each other on this subject.' " 

The illustrious Seer closed his eyes on this sphere, at 
his lodgings in Great Bath Street, Cold Bath Fields, 
London, March 29, 1772, in the eighty-fifth year of his 
age ; and his remains were interred in the Swedish 
Church, Itatcliff Highway." 

The above composed a very few passages and inci- 
dents, in the life of one of the most wonderful and en- 
lightened minds that has ever existed upon our earth ; 
and the facts related respecting him, are fully establish- 
ed by unquestionable evidence ; but the life and charac- 
ter of the man, are alone sufficient evidence, for we are 
not willing to believe that the man of such piety and 
truth, would descend so low as to deceive his fellow ' 
men, even if opportunities and circumstances were fav- 
orable for him to do so. But reason forbids us to try to 
believe that those tests could have possibly been brought 
out, excepting by the mental or spirit vision, which all 
men possess, although they do not comprehend that they 
possess such noble and exalted powers. 

Having witnessed the pov*ers of mind, displayed by 



CLAIRVOYANCE. 33 

the means of the clairvoyant vision, we will now ask, 
do not all men possess the same principles of mind in 
some degiee ? Yes, the organization of the human 
mind, although individualized, is the same, excepting in 
the development in the different departments of the 
nature of the organization. Well, then, we find that 
all do possess a vision independent of the physical eye; 
and if it were not so, how will the spirit of man take 
cognizance of objects after leaving ibis mortal coil of 
flesh ? Kind reader, do you believe that you possess 
an immortal spirit ? And if so, do you believe that 
spirit will retain an eternal identity ? To the first 
question we will say, if you do not believe in your im- 
mortality, then we will not try to reason with you ; for 
you have taken a position far below all reasonable be- 
ings. And to the second question, will say, that if you 
believe that your spirit does retain its identity through 
on endless course of existence and progression, then 
you must believe that such a spirit has a vision ; and 
as it is a spirit-body, and will possess a spirit-vision, 
then, so as it is a spirit-body now, encased by this the 
physical body, it must possess a spirit-eye, independent 
of the physical eye. Well, then, as reason compels us 
to believe that it is so, may we ask the reader if he 
should consider it impossible for the superior or spiritual 
eye, (conditions being favorable,) to look out through 
the material body, and view the interior and exterior of 
all things throughout these lower spheres of nature, anil 
in a degree the higher spheres of the spirit land : O! 
Khort-sighted man ! reflect upon your own nature-, both 



34 CLAIRVOYANCE. 

material and spiritual, and endeavor to " know thyself," 
and learn what is to be your eternal destiny. 

Well, then, as we have seen that man possesses vis- 
ion superior to the physical eye, may not that have 
much to do with this great phenomena, called " Spirit 
Manifestations ? " Had we space, we could bring for- 
ward many instances to prove that many of these man- 
ifestations can be explained by clairvoyance, independ- 
ent of any spirit agency but what is encased in mortal 
bodies. Yet there is a possibility of receiving commu- 
nications from our guardian spirits ; but we do not wish 
to take that for a spirit communication, which is not; 
and which can be explained by natural laws and prin- 
ciples, independent of a theory brought out from the 
abodes of the departed. We will endeavor to bring 
out our ideas more fully in the article upon Influx. 
But let us all endeavor to cultivate the nobler powers 
of our natures, and become as were the seers of ages 
past. We may not all follow the same path, for we 
may not all become Swedenborgs. Yet there is al- 
ready an American Swedenborg in our midst, and his 
teachings are of a lofty, spiritual nature. Probably 
you already know whom we refer to ; if you do not, 
then let us speak the name of Andrew Jackson Davis, 
the great American clairvoyant, who has soared through 
the eternal labyrinths of the spirit-land, and beheld the 
deep mysteries of life and spirit. And so may we all 
do in some degree, even while inhabiting this body. 

Dr. Betrand, in his Treatise on Somnambulism, says : 



MANIFESTATIONS. 



"The soul can as well take cognizance of objects 
the farthest off from its body, as of those nearest to it ; 
for the view at the greatest distances once operated, 
there will be nothing to create surprise, or what may 
not even seem necessary ; for, if our soul is quite as 
well at the antipodes as in our body, wherefore, if ii de- 
sires to direct its attention on an object fifteen hundred 
leagues off, should it not equally as well t;ikc cogni- 
ziiice of it as of that within a few feet of it ? " 

Yet, admitting our above position to be true, we 
would not have you to understand that clairvoyance is 
perfectly reliable in all cases. 



MANIFESTATIONS. 

That a large portion of these " Manifestations " are 
caused by the electrical condition of the person called 
the " medium," can be fully and plainly proved by ihe 
numerous experiments, which may be brought out by 
Electrical Psychology, as all those who are "mediums" 
for the sounds, are persons who eun be easily controlled 
by operators in electrical psychology ; and this goes to 
prove that the person who becomes the medium, the 
first in the circle, that Bits together for the purpose of 
getting what are called *• spirit communications," ii in 
a psychological or a partially magnetised state. I \ r 
vrhene?erthe person is magnetised or psychologised by 



36 MANIFESTATIONS. 

an operator, be is not conscious of the power or control, 
that the operator has gained over him, until he endeav- 
ors to resist the operator, and then he learns that he 
is obliged to obey the demands and commands of the 
operator's mind. And so it is with many of the me- 
diums, for whenever they sit for ihe purpose of getting 
communications, then they become psychologised, by 
the person or persons, sitting with them, whose electri- 
cal conditions are of a positive nature, and when once in 
this condition, the medium is almost entirely under the 
control of the questioner ; whether the questions are 
asked mentally or verbally, the desire of the questioner 
will generally bring out the answer, to correspond with 
his desire, so therefore, we plainly see that there can be 
no reliability to such a class of communications, as we 
can plainly show, by the three following sentences, 
which at the time they were received, purported to be 
from George Washington : — • 

1st Communication. — u Listen to me all ye earnest 
seekers for spiritual light and truth, for I have a message 
for you, and if you will but live out the spirit of its , 
language, then you will be better soldiers to enlist in the 
armies of this brighter and better world. My message 
is this, and it is for every being who compose the Hu- 
man family. Throw down your arms of rebellion, upon 
the battle field of your lower sphere, and turn your 
thoughts upward toward your higher home, where har- 
mony alone can be found, and that harmony composed 
of all the powers of Love and Wisdom, that all shall 



MANIFESTATIONS. 37 

live for eternity, is a truth, that all the discordant teach- 
ings of your earthly institutions of discord, cannot 
change ; yet the spirit of your natures must progress, 
and if they do not progress in a course of harmony, 
then they must pass through the awful hell of the dis- 
cordant transition, or lower preparatory sphere ; this 
will only be the hindrance which such undeveloped and 
discordant spirits meet, and then, after such a course of 
preparation, they progress through the upper spheres for- 
ever. But our spirit-band desire that you should by a 
harmonious course of life in your rudimental sphere, es- 
cape, and leap over the lower transitory or preparation 
sphere of darkness. This is your message ; live accord- 
ing to its teaching and escape the sphere of discord. 
George Washington." 

2d Communication. — " The powers of the higher 
spheres are marshalling their forces, and in battle will 
meet those of the lower spheres of darkness, and fierce 
and powerful will be the contest, for those of the low- 
er discordant spheres, have chosen a God and a King 
flt)m among their members, and are Worshiping him. in- 
stead of the God of our spiritual universe ; they must 
be subdued, and they will he. This message I give 
you in answer in part to your question, respecting wir^ 
among the armies of the heavenly spheres, and accord- 
ing to your desire have you received your Answer, and 
•c it r\ er is. 

QEOBOI WA8B I N <■ 1 <<\ ." 



MANIFESTATIONS. 



3d Communication. — "Eternity has bounds and 
limits only in the depths of the spirit, toward which all 
spirits forever progress. There are bounds and limits 
of the lower spheres, but they are ever changing, like 
undulatory clouds of celestial spirit-light. The scenery 
of this eternity of spheres remains in like positions but 
momentary ; the bright golden electric spirit-light has 
no law or principle to retain like positions but momen- 
tary, and this affects and causes the eternity of changes, 
and these changes are bright emblems of the eternal 
glories which await all spirits of harmony, from all the 
earths of the universe. Then according to all the evolv- 
ing thoughts of your mind and spirit, you will receive 
answers ; if you ask of hell, according to your desire so 
will your answer be ; if of heaven, even according to 
your desire so will your answer come respecting that. 
George Washington." 

The above communications all differ in their nature, 
and clearly show that the desire of mind will control 
and dictate them ; but if they came from disembodied 
spirits, we are compelled by reason to believe that the 
human mind would not influence them according to its 
worldly desires and wishes. We might give hundreds 
of communications, purporting to come from the spirits 
of hundreds of the great and illustrious men of earth, 
who have passed beyond this sphere of action, and who 
we believe, have nothing to do with the low concerns of 
men who are residents of this sphere of earth and time ; 
but that they are in high and glorious occupations, 



MOVEMENTS. 39 

which are probably far beyond the comprehension of 
the mind of mortal man. And it seems too much like 
blasphemy, for man to attribute a low phenomena of 
mind and matter, to the agency of such angel-spirits as 
we are compelled to believe that such great and mighty 
men have become, since their departure from earth ; for 
we find that there is but a shadow of reliability in com- 
munications, even the best of them. 



MOVEMENTS. 

Movements may be caused by currents of electricity 
in different ways. In the first place, we will take a 
medium, or a person whose electrical condition can easily 
be changed to the negative, and psychologize him, and 
then place his hand upon the table, or any article of 
furniture within the room, and then the operator by his 
own positive electrical condition, can by his will or de- 
sire, control the person in any manner that lie chooses ; 
the subject cannot cither lift the hand from the position 
ill which the operator places it, nor can he have any 
control of his body in any manner whatever, unless it 
be the will of the operator that he should do so, and 
after a few operations in this manner, the operator has 
the lull control of the subject, both bodily ami mentally. 

Thi- susceptibility of One person to the operations of 

another, when carried to the extent to which it may he. 

will explain much of the wonderful phenomena that i> 



40 MOVEMENTS. 

moving the great mass of mind, throughout the country 
We throw out these few ideas, so that others may take 
them up and bring them out more fully. 

We will now give our first experience respecting the 
movements of articles of furniture, which movements 
were attributed to the agency of departed spirits. Hav- 
ing heard of the movements of the table in the form of 
tipping it, for the purpose of answering questions, we 
were induced to try the experiment, for the purpose of 
learning whether we were a medium for such kind of 
communications or not ; and we placed our hand upon 
the table, and asked the question, " If the spirit is pres- 
ent, will it tip the table ?" (and my desire was that it 
should tip.) and immediately the table moved ajid tip- 
ped, and then we learned for the first time that we 
were a medium for what are called the tippings, and 
for months afterwards, we could get what many called 
spirit communications, in this manner. And afterward 
when laying our hand upon the table, and then raising 
the hand, the table would follow it, and would raise 
from the floor, and remain suspended for some length of 
time in the atmosphere, without touching any material 
object whatever, with the exception of our hand, which 
was placed upon the top of it. And from the many ex- 
periments which we have tried from time to time, we 
find that unless we are in a psychologized or partially 
magnetized state, the movements cannot be produced. 
And we also find that we can cause the movements of 
the table, or other articles of furniture, by will or de- 
sire ; and that we can cause questions to be answered 



MOVEMENTS. 41 

just as we choose to have them ; and at times our neg- 
ative electrical condition is such as to produce move- 
ments of the different articles of furniture in the room, 
by desire or will alone, without touching them. And 
we also find that the will or desire of other minds will 
operate in the same manner, through us as the electri- 
cal medium, either for the purpose of answering ques- 
tions or producing movements. 

The above statements we make for the benefit of the 
public. Knowing how prone the marvelous mind is to 
attribute what it cannot understand to some supernatu- 
ral or spiritual agency, we consider it to be our duty to 
give the results of our experiments and investigations to 
others, that they may try the same class of experiments, 
for the purpose of finally bringing out and establishing 
a true theory respecting this new electrical and mental 
phenomena. We will give here a short communication 
which we received by the tipping of the table. The 
communication . was evolved in the mind of another 
person, and conveyed through ourself as the medium. 
It is this : 

u Your mother is sick, and wishes very much to see 
you ; go and see her .soon as possible, for she may not 
live another day. Be sure and go, without fail." 

The above communication was in the mind of the 
i in the room at the time, when many other 
communications ; and after witnessing the move- 
ments of the table, and seeing others _ r|, t communics- 
4* 



42 MOVEMENTS. 

tions from what they believed to be their guardian 
spirits, he then wished to try and see if he could get 
a communication. And he accordingly asked the ques- 
tion, " Is there any spirit present who wishes to com- 
municate with me ? " And then the question was 
asked, " Will the spirit tip the table, and spell out a 
communication, if we repeat the alphabet ? " The 
answer was in the affirmative ; so therefore, according 
to direction, the alphabet was called over until the 
above communication was spelled out. The person 
•who received the communication had buried his mother 
about eighteen months before ; and he stated that the 
whole communication had been formed in his mind be- 
fore asking the spirit to communicate ; yet he did not 
speak a word excepting the asking of the questions. 

Now this shows that the great mass of these com- 
munications may be received in the same manner ; that 
is, by mental influx. For whenever the medium is in a 
psychological condition, the mind is capable of receiv- 
ing impressions from another individual or individuals. 
And this will account for the broken communications 
which are at times received ; for one mind in the room 
will influence the first part of the communication, and 
some other mind another part ; therefore a number of 
minds will influence and bring out the broken and un- 
meaning sentences. And now, when we take this view 
of this manner of receiving impressions, the whole mat- 
ter can easily be explained, without entering the abodes 
of the departed for a solution of the mystery. 



WHITING MEDIUMS. 43 

WRITING MEDIUMS. 

There are hundreds of persons at the present lime, 
who are called " Writing Mediums." And many of 
them verily believe that they are influenced by spirits 
from the higher spirit-spheres, to write what they do. 
Well they might think so at first, for they do not un- 
derstand the positive and negative electrical conditions 
of mind, and the wonderful and startling operations of 
the positive principle of mind over the negative. But 
all may soon learn by a deep and earnest study of the 
nature, power, and application of electricity, and the 
electrical conditions of mind, and the susceptibility of 
mind to operate upon mind. We speak from the 
knowledge that we have gained from three years in- 
vestigation and experience in this field of mental phe- 
nomena ; and having gained some new thoughts and 
truths respecting it, we feel free and confident to speak 
out our views, and in so doing we are sure that 
we shall be upheld by the earnest seekers for the 
truth, respecting this new phenomena. Often have 
we received communications purporting to come from 
spirits whose names we have never heard of. Well, 
many will ask from what source did such communi- 
cations come ? In answer we will give you our opin- 
ions and the results of our investigation in that re- 
spect. The first communication that we received by 
tlir means of writing, purported to come from the 
spirit of Alexander Pope ; and it was of such a na- 
ture that most of the believers in these manifestation-. 



44 WRITING MEDIUMS. 

were obliged to give it as their opinion, that it was 
in reality a communication from the source from whence 
it purported to come ; we will now give the communica- 
tion, word for word as we received it : — 

" All nature speaks, and its voice is like the mighty 
songs of heaven's high band of glorious choristers. As the 
desire of my interior nature was to search out the beauti- 
ful in nature, and to write it out for the purpose of in- 
structing other minds who might come up out of the 
mighty future, even so does my spirit long to do good to 
those who now inhabit your earth ; and this message I 
give you, for the purpose of strengthening others to be- 
lieve that they are surrounded by the spirits of the de- 
parted, who are ever watching over them, and guiding and 
governing them in the course of right and truth ; and this 
is my wish and desire of you respecting this message, 
that you should convey it to the great mass of humanity, 
and let them know that I speak these words from the 
heavens, that they may know that the myriad spirits of 
the eternal spheres, are constantly watching and desir- 
ing for their eternal welfare." 

Alexander Pope. 

The remarkable nature of the above communication, 
is, that it had be fore been written out by another me- 
dium, for the person who was in our presence at the 
time that we wrote out the same communication, yet 
we had never seen it or known any thing about it pre- 
vious to the time that we wrote it out ; and as soon as we 







WRITING MEDIUMS. 45 

had written it out in full, the person that had before 
received the same communication, took from his pocket a 
slip of paper and read from it the same, word for word 
that we had written, and he then made the statement 
that he had but a few days before received the same 
communication from another writing medium, and that 
he had called upon me for the purpose of testing the 
matter, and that he had, during the time of our writing 
kept his mind upon the slip of paper upon which the 
communication was that he had received from the first 
medium, and the result was as you see, a like commu- 
nication to the one received from the first medium. The 
above shows the operation of mind upon mind, and es- 
tablishes the truth of a mental influx, of which we shall 
speak in another article. Although such communica- 
tions may not come from the spirits of the departed, 
yet there may be much that will be instructing and ben- 
eficial to all who may have a taste for reading such 
kinds of writing, for the individual mind when in a 
psychologized or magnetized condition, will possess more 
refined ami elevating thoughts, as the mind is more in- 
tensely wrought upon by all the nobler, moral and in- 
tellectual faculties while in such a condition, and for 
the benefit of the reader, we will now give a short com- 
munication received while we were in such a condition. 

v - The spirit spheres are tilled with unspeakable ami 
eternally increasing beauties, and Mich beauties are ever 
increasing like the glories and eternal Bplendors that 
SUITOUDd the throne of the kin^r of kings ami lord 



46 WRITING MEDIUMS. 

of lords, where the ebbing and flowing sea of eternity 
washes against the throne of the Infinite, and where 
the unnumbered spirits of glory are exploring the deep 
mysteries of the eternal laws of spirit and life. Thus 
speak the great Immortals, and their wisdom comes 
from the eternal fount, out from which will forever flow 
ever increasing principles of wisdom and love. Yet 
these are but broken accents and soft whispers ; but 
they are enough for a slight foretaste, and we give this 
to create the stronger passion for higher wisdom, the 
love of which creates the high harmonies of Heaven's 
ministering spirits and lofty angel bands." 

We might give volumes like the above, but we con- 
sider that this one will be sufficient to give the idea 
that we wish to convey — that is, that many of the 
writing mediums would take such, as communications 
from the spirits of the departed, when it is only the 
production of thi individual mind when in a partial 
magnetized condition — for the mind when in a clairvoy- 
ant state is capable of writing and interpreting all 
languages, and also of writing from the thoughts and 
impressions of other minds near at hand, or at great 
distances from them. All this has been performed and 
tested. And now may we not ask, if more than has 
yet been performed by clairvoyance, may not be ? We 
are sure that there may ; and we are also confident in 
our belief that the intuitive and clairvoyant powers of 
the human mind control the writing " mediums" when 



HAND MOVEMENTS. 47 

they write out communications, which at first thought 
and view seem so mysterious. And ere long this new 
era of mind will arise from the misty shades of the 
past night of mental darkness, and the powers of the 
human mind will he displayed in their fullness, and our 
ignorance of past days will appear as gross folly. 



HAND MOVEMENTS. 

There seems at the present time, to he hundreds of 
persons who are called hand mediums — or persons 
whose hands arc moved to answer questions, instead of 
answering by the raps, or sounds and movements ; and 
many are ready and willing to believe that the move- 
ments of the hand are produced by the spirits of the 
departed ; and as proof, they say that the medium has 
no control of the hand whatever ; well, perhaps they 
have not ; yes, in many cases, we are sure they have 
not the control of their hands ; yet we do not believe 
that they are controled by any spirit agency coming 
from other than this rudimental sphere ; and here, in 
this sphere of human action, we believe there are 
many unknown mental powers that have not yet been 
fully understood, and in them we believe there can be 
found a solution for this nervous, mental mania, for we 
cannot call it aught else — and from our investigations in 
this field, we believe we have found the true solution 
for it. And for the benefit of the reader we will give 
our ideas and opinions respecting the matter. 



48 HAND MOVEMENTS. 

In the first place we will give our own experience in 
the hand movements. When we first saw a medium 
who answered questions by the movements of the 
hand, after having our questions answered very correct- 
ly, we were also induced to try and see if our hand 
would become paralyzed, and accordingly we asked the 
question, " Will the spirit move our hand ?" and instant- 
ly our hand and arm became paralyzed, and then, 
questions asked by other persons were answered very 
correctly. And to my mind it appeared rather strange, 
that the spirit should cause the hand to move in such a 
peculiar manner. After a long and thorough investi- 
gation we have been obliged to say, that we do not 
believe that the spirits of the departed have aught to do 
with it, yet, we believe that questions can be answered 
correctly by such movements ; but, it is very evident 
that such answers are given by desire and mental 
impressions ; yes, from our experience in the matter we 
can truly say that we know that it is so, and if such per- 
sons as are mediums for the movements of the hand, but 
fully understood their susceptibility to magnetic changes, 
then they would not doubt the possibility of the truth 
of our conclusions. The human mind is much more* 
sensitive, and susceptible to changes than the magnetic 
needle, and it changes from the positive to the nega- 
tive at times, by a very slight change of another indi- 
vidual mind. Therefore we see that the operations of 
mind when in conditions so susceptible to changes, and 
surrounding influences, are of such a varied nature, 
that it would not be safe for us to rely at all in them, 



for they are alone the operations of mind and matter, 
without the aid or direction of the spirits of the 
departed, and it will not be well to attribute such opera- 
tions to a spiritual agency, until we have studied the 
almost unnumbered operations of the laws and princi- 
ples of mind and matter. And then if we are unable 
lo find the solution in those operations, we will, after 
comprehending them in their fullness, (and probably that 
will not be in our probation on earth) then establish 
some theory brought out from the abodes of departed 
immortals. This, then, is our position, respecting this 
phenomena. 



SPIRIT. 

In spirit we find all Power and Life. The endless 
movements throughout the illimitable fields of the 
Universe, are all caused by the power of spirit, and the 
spirit of the Universe is the emanation from the great 
Eternal Spirit — (iod. [n Him all power centres, and 
out from Him conies all Life — for by the operations of 
his mighty. Eternal and Infinite spirit does be establish 
laws, that hold in harmony the spheres of the spirit 
world and the unnumbered worlds throughout His 
mighty Universe. Up to Him we trace all things, and 
out from him we by reason know that all things ema- 
nate. Therefore let us as atoms of the great tterari 

whole, humble ourselves ami lav low the discordant 
5 



50 



pride that we may have obtained by a wrong system of 
education ; for by humility comes wisdom, the true 
wisdom, and the possession of it makes the finite spirit 
a noble being and beautiful part of the Infinite. 
Although His spirit is in and through all things, yet 
he partakes of some form and possesses an organized 
body, and the Life of that body is one grand Infinite 
law — and out from that law come and go all unnumbered 
laws, or causes, that the finite has cognizance of. The 
operations are like eternal systems of progression and 
development. And now we see the numerous systems 
of earths and worlds and their uses. Then again, we 
take another view, and behold a higher creation, that 
comes out in the form of man, who possesses a finite 
likeness of the great Cause of causes, the great, ever 
existing Ultimate from whence all other ultimates come 
— and the most noble of them all is man, for he par- 
takes of the perfect image of his Author. And now, 
of the destiny of the interior, or the life of this image 
let us speak. Dear reader, do you wish to know more 
of what is to be your eternal destiny — then why not 
follow after the dictates of your better nature, and 
grovel no more in the sense of the flesh, but study' 
earnestly the book of Nature, and then let your mind 
go up to the Author of all its harmonies and beauties. 
Study the nature of your own individuality, and strive 
to open the mental eye, so that you may be able to 
investigate all the wonderful phenomena and operations 
of mind while it inhabits the rudimental sphere, and 
then you can separate truth from error, and be the 



PROPHECY. 51 

possessor of a knowledge sufficient to guide your fellow- 
men from the courses of error. But here let us state 
that if our minds are groveling in the dark and misty 
shades of error and delusion, and if we endeavor to 
bring down the lofty nature of spirit and mix it in wild 
confusion with the operations of matter and mind, for 
the purpose of establishing some mystical theory which 
has no foundation established by true laws and princi- 
ples, then those who throw themselves by lack of true 
wisdom into such errors and delusions, are not capable 
of comprehending the superiority of the conditions and 
positions of departed spirits, for they do not realize the 
almost unbounded fields of mind and matter. So, 
therefore, if a phenomena arises from those kingdoms, 
their marvelous minds at once attribute such a class of 
phenomena to the higher agency of spirits, when in 
reality there is nothing higher than the operations of 
matter in connection with mind. 



1' ROPH ECY. 

The genera] idea respecting prophecy, seems to be, 
especially among many of the churches, that the day 
of prophecy has passed, ami that we may never again 
expect anything farther from that source, because, Bat 
they, the heavens are closed ami the prophets of old 
have passed from earth, ami left sufficient prophetic 
instruction for us, ami for all coming time. Well, we 



52 PROPHECY. 

will leave such a class of minds to grovel with their old 
fangled ideas, and go on and expect that we shall yet 
obtain new prophecies, for there is a principle in man 
that causes him to aspire and desire for more and loftier 
truths than he has yet received. And the possession of 
such a desire, is alone sufficient evidence and reason to 
cause him to believe that he is a prophet himself. 
What difference do we find in the man of the present 
time and man 1800 years ago ? The difference seems 
to be this, that instead of retrograding he has progressed 
in wisdom. Why then may he not, (as he of the same 
organization of man through past ages) expect to 
receive high and glorious prophecies for the coming 
races of man ? He may. And he may himself be the 
prophet to soar up and enter the prophetic realms and 
bring out from them, down to man, the mysteries of 
coming ages, and over the threshold of those realms 
may thousands pass, even at this time. Although mis- 
guided and wrongly educated minds stand abashed and 
filled with horror, and call us wild enthusiasts, we know 
that we are images of the great Infinite Prophet, and 
that he has given us all his privileges in a finite degree. 
If such low minds choose to adhere to the old heathen 
Mythologies let them do so ; but as beings of eternal pro- 
gression we choose rather to constantly receive new 
truths and prohecies respecting ourselves, and what is 
to come for the future myriad organizations that are to 
rise up by the operation of the laws and principles of 
the great eternal Prophet, of which we are images. 
For the the benefit of the reader we will here give a 



PROPHECY. 53 

most remarkable prophetic dream, which we find 
noticed in " Selling's Pneumatology," taken from the 
Times newspaper of the 16th of August, 1828 : — 

"In the night of the 11th of May 1812, Mr. 
Williams, of Scorrier house, near Redrath in Cornwall, 
awoke his wife, and, exceedingly agitated, told her that 
he had dreamed that he was in the lobby of the house 
of commons, and saw a man shoot with a pistol a gentle- 
man who had just entered the lobby, who was said to 
be the chancellor : to which Mrs. Williams naturally 
replied, that it was only a dream, and recommended 
him to be composed, and go to sleep as soon as he 
could. He did so, but shortly after again awoke her, 
and said that he had the second time had the same 
dream ; whereupon she observed, that he had been so 
much agitated with his former dream, that she supposed 
it had dwelt on his mind, and begged of him to try to 
compose himself and go to sleep, which he did. A third 
time the same vision was repeated ; on which, notwith- 
standing ber entreaties that he would be quiet and 
endeavor to forget it, he arose, being then between one 
and two o'clock, and dressed himself. At breakfast, 
the dreams were the sole subject of conversation; and 
in the forenoon .Mr. Williams went to Falmouth, where 
lie related the particulars of them to all his acquaint- 
ance that he met. On the following day. Mr. Tucker, 
of Tremanton castle, accompanied by his wife, ■ 
daughter of Mr. Williams, went to Scorrier house about 
dusk. Immediately after the firs! salutations, on their 
5* 



54 PROPHECY. 

entering the parlor, where were Mr., Mrs., and Miss 
Williams, Mr. Williams began to relate to Mr. Tucker 
the circumstances of his dream ; and Mrs. Williams 
observed to her daughter, Mrs. Tucker, laughingly, that 
her father could not even suffer Mr. Tucker to be 
seated, before he told him of his nocturnal visitation : 
on the statement of which, Mr. Tucker observed, that 
it would do very well for a dream to have the chancel- 
lor in the lobby of the house of commons, but that he 
would not be found there in reality ; and Mr. Tucker 
then asked what sort of a man lie appeared to be, when 
Mr. Williams minutely described him ; to which Mr. 
Tucker replied : ' Your description is not at all that of 
the chancellor, but it is certainly very exactly that of 
Mr. Perceval, the chancellor of the exchequer ; and 
although he^ has been to me the greatest enemy I ever 
met with through life, for a supposed cause, which had 
no foundation in truth, (or words to that effect,) I 
should be exceedingly sorry indeed to hear of his being 
assassinated, or any injury of the kind happening to 
him.' Mr. Tucker then inquired of Mr. Williams if 
he had ever seen Mr. Perceval, and was told that he 
never had seen him, nor had ever even written to him, 
either on public or private business ; in short, that he 
never had had anything to do with him, nor had he 
ever been in the lobby of the house of commons in his 
life. At this moment, while Mr. Williams and Mr. 
Tucker were still standing, they heard a horse gallop to 
the door of the house, and immediately after, Mr. 
Michael Williams, of Treviner (son of Mr. Williams 



PROPHECY. il 

of Scorrier,) entered the room, and said, that lie had 
galloped out from Truro (from which Scorrier is distant 
seven miles,) having ^^-u a gentleman there who had 
come by that evening's mail from London, who said 
that he was in the lobby of the house of commons on 
the evening of the 1 lth, when a man called Bellingham 
had shot Mr. Perceval ; and that as it might occasion 
some great ministerial changes, and might afFect Mr. 
Tucker's political friends, he had come out as fast as he 
could to make him acquainted with it, having heard at 
Truro that he passed through that place in the after- 
noon, on his way to Scorrier. After the astonishment 
which this intelligence had created had a little subsided, 
Mr. Williams described most particularly the appear- 
ance and dress of the man that he saw in his dream 
fire the pistol, as he had before done of Mr. Perceval. 
About six weeks after, Mr. Williams having business in 
town, went, accompanied by a friend, to the house of 
commons, where, as has been already observed, he had 
never before been. Immediately that he came to the 
steps at the entrance of the lobby, he said : ; This 
place is as distinctly within my recollection, in my 
dream, as any room in my house ;' ami he made the 
same observation when he entered the lobby. I [e th< □ 
pointed out the exact spot where Bellingham stood 
when he fired, and which Mr. Perceval had reached 
when he was struck by the ball, and where and how he 
fell. The dreSS, of both Mr. Percval and I! !!ing- 

h am, agreed with the description given by Mr. Wil- 
liam--, even to the most minute particular." 



56 



" The Times" states, that Mr. Williams was then 
alive, and the witnesses to whom he made known the 
particulars of his dream, were also living ; and that the 
editor had received the statement from a correspondent 
of unquestionable veracity. 



VISION. 

We find in the works of Plutarch, a wonderful vision 
of the spirit spheres, and we give it a place in these 
pages for the purpose of illustrating by the fair and 
impartial evidence of those gone before us, and whose 
testimony stands almost the same as law in other 
respects, — the operations of the spirit even when it has 
a connection with the physical body, yet having no 
knowledge of it. The following is the vision : — 

" Thespesios of Soli, lived at first very prodigally 
and profligately ; but afterwards, when he had spent all 
his property, necessity induced him to have recourse to 
the basest methods for a subsistence. There was 
nothing, however vile, which he abstained from, if it 
only brought him in money ; and thus he amassed a 
considerable sum, but fell at the same time into the 
worst repute for villainy. That which contributed most 
to this, was a prediction of the god Amphilocus : for 
having applied to this deity to know whether he would 
spend the rest of his life in a better manner, he received 



57 



for answer 'That he would never mend till he died.' 
And so it really happened, in a certain sense ; for not 
long afterward, he fell down from an eminence upon 
his neck, though he received no wound, yet he died in 
consequence of the fall. But three days afterwards? 
when he was about to be interred, he received strength 
and came to himself. A wonderful change now took 
place in his conduct, for the Cilicians know no one who 
at that time was more conscientious in business, devout 
toward God, terrible to his foes, or faithful to his friends ; 
so that those who associated with him wished to learn 
the cause of this change ; justly supposing that such 
an alteration of conduct, from the greatest of baseness 
to sentiments so noble, could not have come of itself. 
And so it really was, as he himself related to Protoge- 
nus, and other judicious friends. 

" When his rational soul left the body, he felt like a 
pilot hurled out of his vessel into the depths of the sea. 
He then raised himself up, and his whole being seemed 
on a sudden to breathe, and to look about it on every 
aide, us if the soul had been nil eye lie saw nothing 
of the previous objects; hut beheld the enormous • 
at an Immense distance from each other, endowed with 
admirable radiance, and uttering wonderful sounds; 
while his soul glided gently and easily along, borne by 
a itream of light in every direction. In his narrative, 
he passed over what he saw besides, and merely -aid. 
that he perceived the souls of those that were just 
departed, rising up from the earth ; they formed a lumi- 
nous kind of bubble, and w hen it burst, the sen! placidly 



58 vision. 

came forth, glorious, and in human form. The souls, 
however, had not all the same motion ; some soared 
upward with wonderful ease, and instantaneously ascend- 
ed to the heights above : others whirled about like 
spindles ; sometimes rising upward and sometimes sink- 
ing downward, having a mixed and disturbed motion. 
He was unacquainted with most of them, but recog- 
nized two or three of his relatives. He drew near to 
them, and wished to speak to them, but they did not 
hear him, for they were not wholly themselves, but in a 
state of insensibility, and avoiding every touch ; they 
turned round, first alone in a circle, then, as they met 
with others in a similar condition, they moved about 
with them in all directions, emitting indistinct tones, 
like rejoicing mixed with lamentations. Others again 
appeared in the heights above, shining brilliantly, and 
affectionately uniting with each other, but fleeing the 
restless souls above described. In this place he also 
saw the soul of another of his relatives, but not very 
perceptibly, for it had died while a child. The latter, 
however, approaching him said, < Welcome, Thespe- 
sios !' On his answering that his name was not 
Thespesios, but Aridaios, it replied, ' It is true, thou 
didst formerly bear that name, but henceforth thou art 
called Thespesios. Thou art, however, not yet dead, 
but by a particular providence of the gods art come 
hither in thy rational spirit ; but thou hast left the 
other soul behind, as an anchor in the body. At pres- 
ent, and in future, be it a sign by which thou mayest 
distinguish thyself from those that are really dead, that 



59 



the souls of the deceased no longer cast a shadow, and 
are able to look steadfastly at the light above without 
being dazzled.' On this, the soul in question, conduc- 
ted Thespesios through all parts of the other world, and 
explained to him the mysteries and government of 
Divine Justice ; why many are punished in this life, 
while others are not ; and showed him also every species 
of punishment to which the wicked are subject here- 
after. He viewed everything with holy awe ; and after 
having beheld all this as a spectator, he was at length 
seized with dreadful horror when on the point of depart- 
ing, for a female form of wondrous size and appearance 
laid hold of him, just as he was going to hasten away, 
and said, ' Come hither, in order that thou mayst the 
better remember everything !' And with that she drew 
forth a burning rod, such as th<5 painters use, when 
another hindered her, and delivered him ; while he, as 
if suddenly impelled forward by a violent gale of 
wind, sank back at once into his body, and came to 
life again at the place of interment." 

The above shows fully and plainly that the spirit may 
be detached from tin.* physical body and again return 
and inhabit it for years. 



60 PRESENTIMENT. 



PRESENTIMENT. 



That the human mind has a power and faculty of 
presentiment, is at the present time, an established fact 
and truth, as we have vast numbers of well attested 
instances in our midst and throughout both the old and 
the new continents. And for the purpose of informing 
the mind of the reader, should he be a skeptic and 
unbeliever in the faculties which his own mind possesses, 
(for we believe the same faculties can be developed in 
every mind to some degree,) we will give a presentiment 
of the most remarkable nature which we find in the 
" Museum of Wonders" the same we find in " Selling's 
Pneuinatology." It is as follows : — 

" A short time before the princess Nagotsky, of 
Warsaw travelled to Paris, she had the following dream. 
She dreamed that she found herself in an unknown 
apartment, when a man, who was likewise unknown to 
her, came to her with a cup, and presented it to her to 
drink out of. She replied that she was not thirsty, and 
thanked him for his offer. The unknown individual 
repeated his request, and added that she ought not to 
refuse it any longer, for it would be the last she would 
ever drink in her life. At this, she was greatly terri- 
fied, and awoke. 

In October, 1720, the princess arrived at Paris in 
good health and spirits, and occupied a furnished hotel, 
where, soon after her arrival, she was seized with a 
violent fever. She immediately sent for the king's 



PRESENTIMENT. 61 

celebrated physician, the father of Helvetius. The 
physician came, and the princess showed striking marks 
of astonishment. She was asked the reason of it, and 
gave for answer that the physician perfectly resembled 
the man whom she had seen at Warsaw in a dream ; 
k but/ added she, ' I shall not die this time, for this is 
not the same apartment which I saw. on that occasion, 
in my dream.' 

The princess was soon after completely restored, and 
appeared to have completely forgotten her dream, when 
a new incident reminded her of it in a most forcible 
manner. She was dissatisfied with her lodgings at the 
hotel, and therefore requested that a dwelling might be 
prepared for her in a convent at Paris, which was 
accordingly done. The princess removed to the con- 
vent, but scarcely had she entered the apartment des- 
tined for her, than she began to exclaim aloud : c It is 
all over with me; I shall not come out of this room 
again alive, for it is the same that I saw at Warsaw in 
my dream!' She died in reality not long afterward in 
the same room, in the beginning of the year 1791, of 
an ulcer in the throat, occasioned by the drawing of a 
tooth." 

The following remarkable case of presentiment, we 
take from " Selling's Pneumatology :" 

"Profes or Boehm, of known respectability in G 
and Marburg, where h • i public lectu 

oo mathematics — a man of integrity, religious seoti- 
8 



62 PRESENTIMENT. 

merits, a friend of truth, and anything else but an 
enthusiast — used frequently to relate the following 
tale : — 

Being one afternoon in pleasant society, where he 
was smoking his pipe and taking his tea, without reflect- 
ing upon any particular subject, he all at once felt an 
impulse in his mind to go home. Now, as he had 
nothing to do at home, his mathematical reason told 
him he ought not to go home, but remain with the com- 
pany. But the inward monitor became stronger and 
more urgent, so that at length every mathematical 
demonstration gave way, and he followed his inward 
impulse. On entering his room, and looking about him, 
he could discover nothing particular ; but he felt a new 
excitement within him, which told him that the bed in 
which he slept must be removed from its place, and 
transported into another corner. Here likewise reason 
began again to operate, and represented to him that the 
bed had always stood there, besides which it was the 
fittest place for it, and the other the most unfit ; but all 
this availed nothing, the monitor gave him no rest : he 
was obliged to call the servant, who moved the bed to 
the desired place. Upon this his mind was tranquil- 
ized, he returned to the company he had left, and felt 
nothing more of the impulse. He stayed to supper 
with the company, went home about ten o'clock, then 
laid himself in his bed, and went to sleep very quietly. 
At midnight he was awakened by a dreadful cracking 
and^noise. He arose from his bed, and then saw that 
a heavy beam with a great part of the ceiling, had fall- 



PRESENTIMENT. 63 

en exactly upon the place where his bed had previously 
stood. Boehm now gave thanks to the merciful 
Father of men for having graciously caused such a 
warning to be given him." 

We take the following from the same work : — 

" In the same volume of the " Museum of Wonders," 
page 153, there is an equally striking presentiment 
related, which the editor had from the lips of a credible 
person. This individual had a friend who held an 
efficient situation in the country. Being unmarried, he 
committed his domestic concerns to the care of a house- 
keeper, who had been with him many years. His 
birthday arrived, he made many preparations for cele- 
brating it ; and told his housekeeper early in the morn- 
ing, that as the day was fine, she should clean out a 
certain arbor in the garden, which he named, because he 
intended to pass the day in it with his guests. Scarce- 
ly had she received this commission, than she seemed 
quite in a maze, and delayed the fulfilment of it. At 
length she entreated him rather to receive his guests in 
one of the rooms of the house, for she had a presenti- 
ment that the arbor would that day be struck by light- 
ning. He Laughed at her assertion as there was no 
appearance of a storm coming on that day. and on her 
renewing her entreaties, he was only the more urgent 
that tin* arbor be had pointed out should he made ready, 

thai it might not appear that li" nave way to her super- 
stitious feelings. At length she went, and did is bef 



64 PRESENTIMENT. 

master ordered her. The day continued fine, the 
company that had been invited arrived, they went into 
the arbor and made themselves merry. In the mean- 
time, however, clouds had gathered in the distant 
horizon, and were at length powerfully driven toward 
the place by the wind. The company were so intent 
upon their entertainment, that they did not in the least 
observe it ; but scarcely was the houskeeper aware 
that the storm was approaching, than she begged her 
master to leave the arbor with his company, for she 
could not divest herself at all of the idea of the light- 
ning striking it. At first they would not listen to her, 
but she continued her entreaties unremittingly; and at 
length, as the storm approached with great violence, 
they suffered themselves to be induced to leave the 
arbor. They had not been in the room more than a 
few seconds, when the lightning struck the arbor, and 
dashed everything that had been left in it to pieces." 

We have given the above cases of wonderful presen- 
timent, for the purpose of showing the susceptibility of 
the human mind to an influx of impressions, and if we 
make right application of such instances, it will enable 
us to comprehend many of the manifestations that we 
are receiving at the present day ; for we believe that 
such cases of presentiment are in part the operation of 
mind upon mind in this rudimental sphere, and not of a 
higher, although the above cases seem to be in reality 
the operation of a higher agency. Our idea is this, 
that there are two classes of phenomena, one of mind 



PRESENTIMENT. 65 

in the body of flesh, the other, and higher, is of spirit, 
divested of the body — and so we believe of the " spirit 
manifestations." So therefore we think it necessary to 
" try the spirits that we may not be deceived." 

For the purpose of confirming and illustrating the 
various statements that we have made respecting appa- 
ritions and dreams that have a connection with the 
spiritual world, and to show the faculty of presenti- 
ment, we will in this place give an extract from the 
journal of Rev. John Wesley. We find the same in 
Selling's work on Pneumatology. It is as follows : — 

" 25th May, 1768. — Being at Sunderland, I took 
down, from one who had feared God from her infancy, 
one of the strangest accounts I ever read : and yet I 
can find no pretence to disbelieve it. The well-known 
character of the person excludes all suspicion of fraud, 
and the nature of the circumstances themselves excludes 
the possibility of a delusion. 

" It is true there are several of them I do not compre- 
hend : but this is, with me, a very sender objection ; 
for what is it which I Jo comprehend, even of things 
which I see daily ? Truly not, \ the smallest grain of 
sand or spire of grass.' I know not how the one grows, 
nor how the particles of the other adhere together. 
What pretence have I, then, to deny well-attested facts, 
because I cannot comprehend them : 

"It is true, likewise, that the English in general,, and 

indeed most of the men of learning in Knrope, have 
given up all accounts of witches and apparitions as 
6* 



PRESENTIMENT. 



mere old wives' fables. I am sorry for it ; and I 
willingly take this opportunity of entering my solemn 
protest against this violent compliment, which so many 
that believe the Bible pay to those who do not believe 
it. I owe them no such service. I take knowledge 
that these are at the bottom of the outcry which has 
been raised, and with such insolence spread throughout 
the nation, in direct opposition, not only to the Bible, 
but to the suffrages of the wisest and best of men in 
all ages and nations. They well know (whether 
Christians know it or not,) that the giving up of witch- 
craft* is, in effect, giving up the Bible ; and they know, 
on the other hand, that if but one account of the inter- 
course of men with separate spirits be admitted, their 
whole castle in the air (deism, atheism, materialism) 
falls to the ground. I know no reason, therefore, 
why we should suffer even this weapon to be wrested 
out of our hands. Indeed, there are numerous argu- 
ments besides, which abundantly confute their vain 
imaginations, but we need not be hooted out of one; 
neither reason nor religion require this. 

" One of the capital objections to all these accounts, 
which I have known urged over and over, is this : ' Did 
you ever see an apparition yourself?' No, nor did I 
ever see a murder, yet I believe there is such a thing ; 
yea, and that in one place or another, murder is com- 
mitted every day. Therefore, I can not, as a reason- 
able man, deny the fact, although I never saw it, and 
perhaps never may. The testimony of unexception- 
*The operation of malignant or infernal influence. 



PRESENTIMENT. 67 

able witnesses fully convinces me of both the one and 
the other. 

" Elizabeth Hobson was born in Sunderland in the 
year 1744. Her father dying when she was three or 
four years old, her uncle, Thomas Rea, a pious man, 
brought her up as his own daughter. She was serious 
from a child, and grew up in the fear of God. Yet she 
had deep and sharp convictions of sin, till she was about 
sixteen years of age, when she found peace with God, 
and from that time the whole tenor of her behavior 
was suitable to her profession. 

"On Wednesday, May 25, 1763, and the three fol- 
lowing days, I talked with her at large ; but it was with 
great difficulty I prevailed on her to speak. The sub- 
stance of what she said was as follows : — 

14 ' From my childhod, when any of our neighbors 
died, whether men, women, or children, I used to see 
them, either just when they died or a little before : 
nor was 1 at all afraid, it was so common. Indeed, 
many times I did not then know they were dead. I 
saw many of them by day, many by night. Those that 
came when it was dark brought light with them. I 
observed that little children and many grown persons 
had a bright, glorious light around them ; but many 
had a g'oomy, dismal light, and a dusky cloud over 
them. 

" ' When T told my uncle this he did not seem to be 
at all surprised at it, hut several times said, ' llr not 
afraid, only take care to Tear and srrvr God ; as long as 
he is 00 your side, nowr. will he able to hurt you.' At 



68 PRESENTIMENT. 

other times he said — dropping a word now and then, 
but seldom answering me any questions about it — ' Evil 
spirits very seldom appear but between eleven at night 
and two in the morning; but after they have appeared 
to the person a year, they frequently come in the day- 
time. Whatever spirits, good or bad, come in the day, 
they come at sunrise, at noon, and at sunset.' 

" ' When I was between twelve and thirteen, my 
uncle had a lodger who was a very wicked man. One 
night I was sitting in my chamber, about half an hour 
after ten, having by accident put out my candle, when 
he came in all over in a flame. I cried out, ' William, why 
do you come in so to fright me ?' He said nothing, but 
went away. I went after him into his room, but found 
he was fast asleep in bed. A day or two after he fell 
ill, and within the week, died in raging despair. 

" ' I was between fourteen and fifteen, when I went 
very early one morning to fetch up the kine. I had two 
fields to cross into a low ground, which was said to be 
haunted. Many persons had been frightened there, and I 
had myself often seen men and women (so many at 
times, that they were out of count) go just by me and 
vanish away. This morning, as I came toward it, I 
heard a confused noise, as of many people quarrelling ; but 
I did not mind it, and went on till I came near the gate. 
I then saw on the other side a young man, dressed in 
purple, who said, ' It is too early ; go back whence you 
came, and the Lord be with you and bless you :' and 
presently he was gone. 

" ■ When I was about sixteen, my uncle fell ill, and 



PRESENTIMENT. 69 

grew worse and worse for three months. One day hav- 
ing been sent on an errand, I was coming home through 
a lane, when I saw him in the field coming swiftly 
toward me. I ran to meet him, but he was gone. 
When I came home, I found him calling forme. As 
soon as I came to his bedside, he clasped his arms round 
my neck, and, bursting into tears, earnestly exhorted 
me to continue in the ways of God, kept his hold, till 
he sunk down and died ; and even then they could 
hardly unclasp his fingers. I would have fain died with 
him, and wished to be buried with him, dead or alive. 

" ' From that time, I was crying from morning till 
night, and praying that I might see him. I grew weak- 
er and weaker, till one morning, about one o'clock, as 
I was lying, crying as usual, I heard .some noise, and, 
rising up, saw him come to the bedside. He looked 
much displeased, shook his head at me. and in a minute 
or two went away. 

" ' About a week after, I took to my bed, and grew 
worse and worse, till in six or seven days my life was 
despaired of. Then, about eleven at night, my uncle 
came in, looked well pleased, and sat down on the bed- 
side He came every night alter, at the same hour, 
and stayed till cock-crowing. 1 was exceedingly glad, 
and kept my eyes fixed on him all the time he stayed. 
l!" I wanted drink or anything, though I did not speak 
or stir, he fetched it and set it on the ehair by the bed- 
side. Indeed, I could not speak. Many limes I strove) 
but could not move my tongue. Every morning, when 

he went away, he waved his hand to me, and 1 betid 



70 PRESENTIMENT. 

delightful music, as if many persons were singing 
together. 

M 'In about six weeks I grew better. I was then 
musing one night, whether I did well in desiring he 
might come, and I was praying that God would do his 
own will, when he came in and stood by the bedside. 
But he was not in his usual dress : he had on a white 
robe, which reached down to his feet. He looked quite 
well pleased. About one, there stood by him a person 
in white, taller than he, and exceedingly beautiful. He 
came with the singing as of many voices, and continued 
till near cock-crowing. Then my uncle smiled, and 
waved his hand toward me twice or thrice. They 
went away with inexpressibly sweet music, and I saw 
him no more. 

" ' In a year after this a young man courted me, and 
in some months we agreed to be married. But he pur- 
posed to take another voyage first, and one evening 
went on board his ship. About eleven o'clock, going 
out to look for my mother, I saw him standing at his 
mother's door, with his hands in his pockets and his 
hat pulled over his eyes. I went to him and stretched 
out my hand to put up his hat, but he went swiftly by 
me, and I saw the wall, on the other side of the lane, 
part as he went through, and then immediately close 
after him. At ten the next morning he died. 

" 'A few days after, John Simpson, one of our 
neighbors — a man that truly feared God, and with 
whom I was particularly acquainted — went to sea as 
usual. He sailed out on a Tuesday. The Friday 



PRESENTIMENT. 



71 



night following, between eleven and twelve o'clock, I 
heard one walking in my room, and every step sounded 
as if he was stepping in water. He then came to the 
bedside in his sea-jacket all wet, and stretched his hand 
over me. Three drops of water fell on my breast, and 
felt as cold as ice. I strove to awake his wife, who lay 
with me ; but I could not, any more than if she was 
dead. Afterward I heard that he was cast away that 
night. In less than a minute he went away ; but he 
came to me every night for six or seven nights follow- 
ing, between eleven and two. Before he came, and 
when he went away, I always heard sweet music. 
Afterward he came both day and night — every night 
about twelve, with the music at his coming and going ; 
and every day at sunrise, noon, and sunset. He came 
— whatever company I was in — at church, in the 
preaching-house, at my class ; and was always just 
before me, changing his posture as I changed mine. 
When I sat, he sat ; when I kneeled, he kneeled ; 
when I stood, he stood likewise. I would fain have 
have spoken to him, but I could not ; when I tried, my 
heart sunk within me. Meantime it affected me more 
and more ; so that I lost my appetite, my color, and my 
strength. This continued ten weeks, while I pined 
away, not daring to tell any one. At last he came four 
or five nights without any music, and looked exceeding 
sad. On the fifth night he drew the curtains of the bed 
violently to and fro, still looking wistfully at me and Bfl 
one quite distressed. This be did two nights I on the 
third, L lay down about eleven, on the side of the hod. 



72 PRESENTIMENT. 

I quickly saw him walking up and down the room. 
Being resolved to speak to him, but unwilling any 
should hear, I rose and went up into the garret. 
When I opened the door I saw him walking toward me, 
and shrunk back, on which he stopped and stood at a 
distance. I said, ' In the name of the Father, Son, 
and Holy Ghost, what is your business with me ?' He 
answered, ' Betsy, God forgive you for keeping me so 
long from my rest ! Have you forgot what you prom- 
ised before I went to sea — to look to my children if I 
was drowned ? You must stand lo your word, or I can 
not rest.' I said, ' I wish I was dead.' He said, ' Say 
not so ; you have more to go through before then : and 
yet, if you knew as much as I do, you would not care 
how soon you died. You may bring the children on in 
their learning while they live ; they have but a short 
time.' I said, ' I will take all the care I can.' He 
added, ' Your brother has written for you to come to 
Jamaica ; but if you go, it will hurt your soul. You 
have also thoughts of altering your condition ; but if 
you marry him you think of, it will draw you from God, 
and you will neither be happy here nor hereafter. 
Keep close to God, and go on in the way wherein you 
have been brought up.' I asked, < How do you spend 
your time ?' He answered, ' In songs of praise. But 
of this you will know more by-and-by ; for where I am, 
you will surely be. I have lost much happiness in 
coming to you ; and I should not have stayed so long 
without using other means to make you speak, but the 
Lord would not suffer me to fright you. Have you 



PRESENTIMENT. 



73 



anything more to say ? It draws near two, and after 
that I can not stay. I shall come to you twice 
more before the death of my two children. God bless 
you !' Immediately I heard .such singing, as if a thou- 
sand voices joined together. lie then went down 
stairs, and I followed him to the first landing. He 
smiled, and I said, < I desire you will come back.' He 
stood still till I came to him. I asked him one or two 
questions, which he immediately answered, but added, 
1 I wish you had not called me back, for now I must 
take something from you.' lie paused a little, and 
said, ' 1 think you can best part with the hearing of 
your left ear.' He laid his hand upon it, and in the 
instant it was as deaf as a stone, and it was several 
years before I recovered the least hearing of it. The 
cock crowed as he went out of the door, and then the 
music ceased. The elder of his children died at ahout 
three and a half, the younger before he was five years 
old. He appeared before the death of each, but with- 
out speaking. After that 1 saw him no more. 

" ' A little before Michaelmas, 1763, my brother 
George, who was a good young man, went to sea. The 
da) after Michaelmas-day, about midnight, I saw him 
standing by my bedside, surrounded with a glorious 
light, and looking earnestly at me. He was wet all 

over. That night, the ship in which he. sailed split up- 
on a rock, and all the crew were drowned. 

" -On April 1), 1767, about raidni King 

awake and saw my brother John standing by my bed- 

Jusl at that time he died in Jamaiea. 
7 



74 



PRESENTIMENT. 



" ' By his death I became entitled to a house in Sun- 
derland, which was left us by my grandfather, John 
Hobson, an exceeding wicked man, who was drowned 
fourteen years ago. I employed an attorney to recover 
it from my aunt, who kept possession of it ; but find- 
ing more difficulty than I expected, in the beginning of 
December I gave it up. Three or four nights after, as 
I rose up from prayer, a little before eleven, 1 saw him 
standing at a small distance. I cried out, ' Lord bless 
me ! what brings you here ?' He answered, ' You 
have given up the house : Mr. Parker advised you to 
do so ; but if you do, I shall have no rest. Indeed, 
Mr. Dunn, whom you have employed, will do nothing 
for you. Go to Durham ; employ an attorney there, 
and it will be recovered.' His voice was loud, and so 
hollow and deep, that every word went through me. 
His lips did not move at all, nor his eyes, but the sound 
seemed to rise out of the floor. When he had done 
speaking, he turned about and walked out of the room. 

u ' In January, as I was sitting on the bedside, a 
quarter before twelve, he came in, stood before me, 
looked earnestly at me, then walked up and down, and 
stood and looked again. This he did for half an hour, 
and thus he came every other night for about three 
weeks. All this time he seemed angry, and sometimes 
his look was quite horrid and furious. One night I was 
sitting up in bed, crying, when he came and began to 
pull off the clothes. I strove to touch his hand, but 
could not, on which he shrunk back and smiled. 

" ' The next night but one, about twelve, I was 



PRESENTIMENT. 75 

again sitting up and crying, when he came and stood at 
the bedside. As I was looking for a handkerchief, lie 
walked to the table, took one up, brought and dropped 
it upon the bed. After this he came three or four 
nights, and pulled the clothes off, throwing them on the 
other side of the bed. 

" ' Two nights after, he came as I was sitting on the 
bedside, and after walking to and fro, snatched the 
handkerchief from my neck: I fell into a swoon. 
When ] came to myself, he was standing just before 
me ; presently he came close to me, dropped it on the 
bed, and went away. 

" ' Having had a long illness the year before, having 
taken much cold by his frequent pulling off the clothes, 
and being worn out by these appearances, I was now 
mostly confined to my bed. The next night, soon after 
eleven, he came again. I asked, ' In God's name, 
why do you torment me thus ? you know it is impossi- 
ble for me to go to Durham now. But I have a fear 
that you are not happy, and beg to know whether you 
are or not.' He answered, after a little pause, ' That 
is a bold question for you to ask. So far as you knew 
me to do amiss in my lifetime, do you take care to do 
better.' I said, < It is a shocking affair to live and die 
after that manner.' He replied, 'It is no time for 
lion now; what is done can not be undone.' 1 
said, ' It must be a great happiness to die in the Lord." 
11-- said, ' Mold your tongue ! hold your tongue ! At 
your peril, never mention such a word before me again.' 
1 was frightened, and strove to lift up my heart to God. 



76 PRESENTIMENT. 

He gave a shriek and sunk down at three times, with a 
loud groan at each time. Just as he disappeared, there 
was a large flash of fire, and I fainted away. 

" 'Three days after, I went to Durham and put the 
affair into Mr. Hugill the attorney's hands. The next 
night, about one, he came in ; but, on my taking up the 
Bible, he went away. A month after, he came about 
eleven. I said, ' Lord bless me ! what has brought you 
here again ?' He said, ' Mr. Hugill has done nothing, 
but wrote one letter : you must write, or go to Durham 
again : it may be decided in a few days.' T said, 
1 Why do you not go to my aunts, who keep me out of 
it ?' He answered, ' I have no power to go to them, and 
they can not bear it. If I could, I would go to them, 
were it only to warn them ; for I doubt where I am, 
I shall get too many to bear me company.' He added, 
1 Take care ! there is mischief laid in Peggy's [her 
aunt's] hand ; she will strive to meet you coming from 
the class. I do not speak to hinder you from going to 
it, but that you may be cautious. Let some one go 
with you and come back with you, though whether you 
will escape or not lean not tell.' I said, ' She can do 
no more than God will let her.' He answered, ' We 
have all too little to do with him : mention that word no 
more. As soon as this is decided, meet me at Boyldon 
hill [about half a mile from the town] between twelve 
and one at night.' I said, ' That is a lone place for a 
woman to go at that lime of night. I am willing to 
meet you at the Ballast hills or in the churchyard.' He 
said, ' That will not do ; but what are you afraid of?' 



PRESENTIMENT. 77 

I answered, ' I am not afraid of you, but of rude men.' 
He said, ' I will set you safe, both thither and back 
again.' I asked, ' May I not bring a minister with 
me?' He replied, ' Are you thereabouts? I will not 
be seen by any but you. You have plagued me sore 
enough already : if you bring any one with you, take 
what follows.' 

" ' From this time he appeared every night between 
eleven and two. If I put out the fire and candle, in 
hopes I should not see him, it did not avail ; for as soon 
as he came, all the room was light, but with a dismal 
light, like that of flaming brimstone; but whenever I 
took up the Bible or kneeled down — yea, or prayed in 
my heart — he was gone. 

" ' On Thursday, May 12, he came about eleven, as 
I was sitting by the fire. I asked, ' In God's name 
what do you want?' He said, < You must either go or 
write to Durham: I can not stay from you till this is 
decided, and I can not stay where I am. When he 
went away, I fell into a violent passion of crying, see- 
in lc no end to my trouble. In this agony I continued 
till after one, and then fell into a fit. About two o'clock 
I came to myself, and saw standing at the bedside, one. 
in a white robe which reached down to his feet. I 
cried, ' In the name, of the Father, Son, and Holy 
Ghost. 9 lb' said, * The Lord is with you ; 1 am come 
to comfort you. What cause have you to complain and 
murmur thus for your friends : Fray lor them and leave 
them to God. Arise ami pray/ 1 said, ' 1 can pray 
iioiir.' He said, 'But God will help you ; only keep 
7* 



78 PRESENTIMENT. 

close to God. You are backward, likewise, in praying 
with others, and afraid to receive the Lord's supper: 
break through that backwardness and that fear. The 
Lord bless you and be ever with you!' As he went 
away, I heard many voices singing hallelujah, with such 
melody as I never heard before. All my trouble was 
gone and I wanted nothing but to fly away with them. 

" ' Saturday, 28th. — About twelve my grandfather 
stood at my bedside. I said, ' In God's name, what do 
you want ?' He said, ' You do not make an end of 
this thing: get it decided as soon as possible. My 
coming is as uneasy to myself as it can be to you.' 
Before he came, there was a strong smell of burning, 
and the room was full of smoke, which got into my 
eyes and almost blinded me for some time after. 

" ' Wednesday, 2\st June. — About sunset, I was 
coming up stairs at Mr. Knot's, and I saw him coming 
toward me out of the opposite room. He went close 
by me on the stair-head. Before I saw him, I smelt a 
strong smell of burning, and so did Miss Hasmer. It 
got into my throat and almost stifled me. I sat down 
and fainted away. 

" ' On Friday, July 3, I was 'sitting at dinner, when 
I thought I heard one come along the passage. I look- 
ed about and saw my aunt, Margaret Scot, of New- 
castle, standing at my back. On Saturday I had a 
letter informing me that she died on that day.' 

" Thus far Elizabeth Hobson. 



79 



"On Sunday, July, 10, I received the following 
letter from a friend, to whom I had recommended her : 

Sunderland, 6th July, 17G3. 

" I wrote you word before, that Elizabeth llo^bson 
was put in possession of the house. The same night, 
her old visitant, who had not troubled her for some 
time, came again and said, ' You must meet me at 
Boyldon hill on Thursday night, a little before twelve. 
You will see many appearances, who will call you to 
come to them ; but do not stir, neither give them 
any answer. A quarter before twelve I shall come 
and call you, but still do not answer nor stir.' 
She said, ' It is a hardship upon me for you to desire 
me to meet you there. Why can not you take your 
leave now ?' He answered, 'It is for your good that I 
desire it. I can take my leave of you now ; but if 1 
do, I must take something from you, which you would 
not like to part with.' She said, ' May not a few 
friends come with me?' He said, ' They may, but 
they must not be present when I come.' 

"That night, twelve of us met at Mr. Davison's 
(about quarter of a mile from the hill.) and spent some 
time in prayer. God was with us of a truth. Then 
six. of us went with her to the place, leaving the rest to 
pray for us. We came thither a little before twelve, 
and then stood at a small distance from her. It being 
a fine night, we kept her in our sight and spent the 
time in prayer. She stood there till a few minutes alter 

one. When we saw her mow, we went to meet her. 



80 ritESEXTIMENT. 

She said, ' Thank God, it is all over and done ! I 
found everything as he told me. I saw many appear- 
ances, who called me to them, but I did not answer nor 
stir. Then he came and called me at a distance, but 
I took no notice. Soon after he came up to me and 
said, ' You come well fortified.' He then gave her the 
reasons why he requested her to meet him at that place, 
and why he could take his leave there, and not in the 
house, without taking something from her. But withal, 
he charged her to tell this to no one, adding, ' If you 
disclose this to any creature, I shall be under the 
necessity of troubling you as long as you live ; if you 
do not, I shall never trouble you, nor see you any more, 
either in time or eternity.' He then bade her farewell, 
waved his hand, and disappeared." 

We might give hundreds of instances, equally well 
authenticated, to show that such apparitions have a 
connection with the spiritual, as well as this natural 
world. And from them we may gain much instruction 
to enable us to establish true theories respecting the 
material and spiritual worlds. 



DETACHMENT. 



DETACHMENT. 



The following we take from Selling's work on Pncu- 
matology, and will illustrate more fully, our ideas and 
position respecting the powers that we possess of throw- 
ing the spirit from the body, and showing its form and 
identity in distant places, while the body remains in the 
place at which the spirit detaches itself from it. 

" About sixly or seventy years ago, a man of piety 
and integrity arrived in Germany from Philadelphia, 
North America, to visit his poor old parents, and, with 
his well-earned wealth, to place them beyond the reach 
of care. He went out to America while he was still 
young, and had succeeded so Air as to become over- 
looker of various mills on the Delaware River, in wbicb 
situation he had honorably laid up a considerable sum. 
This respectable individual related to one of my friends, 
upon whose veracity I can depend, the following won- 
derful tale : — 

" In the neighborhood of Philadelphia, not far from 
the mills above mentioned, there dwelt a solitary man 
in a lonely house. He was very benevolent, but 
extremely retired and reserved, and strange things \. 
related of him, among which was his being able to tell 
a person things that were unknown to every one i 
Now it happened that the captain of a vessel bel< I 
to Philadelphia, was about to sail to Africa and Europe. 
He promised his wife that he would return in a certain 

time, and also that he would write to her frequently. 



82 DETACHMENT. 

"She waited long, but no letter arrived: the time 
passed over, but her beloved husband did not return. 
She was now deeply distressed, and knew not where to 
look for counsel or consolation. 

" At length, a friend advised her for once to go to 
the pious solitary, and tell him of her griefs. The 
woman followed his advice, and went to him. After 
she had told him all her troubles, he desired her to wait 
a while there, until he returned and brought her an 
answer. She sat down to wait, and the man opening a 
door, went into his closet. But the woman thinking he 
stayed a long time, rose up, went to the window in the 
door, lifted up the little curtain, and looking in, saw him 
lying on the couch or sofa like a corpse ; she then im- 
mediately went back to her place. At length he 
came and told her that her husband was in London, in 
a coffee house which he named, and that he would 
return very soon : he then told her also the reason why 
he had been unable to write. The woman w^ent home 
pretty much at ease. What the solitary had told her was 
minutely fulfilled ; her husband returned, and the reasons 
of his delay and his not writing were just the same as 
the man had stated. 

" The woman was now curious to know what 
would be the result, if she visited the friendly solitary 
in company with her husband. The visit was arranged, 
but when the captain saw the man, he was struck with 
amazement; he afterwards told his wife that he had 
seen this very man, on such a day (it was the very day 
that the woman had been with him) in a coffee house 



IMMOETALITY. 83 

in London : and that be had told Iiiin that his wife was 
much distressed about him ; that b<3 bad then stated the 
reason why his return was delayed, and of his not 
writing, and that he would shortly come back, on which 
he lost sight of the man among the company." 

The above occurrence shows the possibility of a 
detachment of the soul or spirit from the material body, 
and that the spirit may take flights of immense dis- 
tances and there appear to others as if in the physical 
body, and then return and enter the body from which it 
had been detached. From our own experience, we are 
able to give our testimony to substantiate it as a truth 
and possibility. 



I M M K T A 1. 1 T Y . 

The belief respecting the immortality of the soul has 
been prevalent through all past ages, and there is an 
inherent belief respecting it, in the spirit of all men, 
even to the lowest and most degraded of all countries 
and nations throughout the world. And for the benefit 
of the reader we will give a few extracts from the most 
prominent writers upon such subjects; we will 
with India. And we cannot in this place give a better 
introduction, for the beginning of this chapter than to 
if the author of the M Celestial Tele- 
graph, or t 1 o[' the life to come; by L. A. 



84 IMMJRTALITY. 

Cahagnet." He says in the Indies " The belief in the 
immortality of the soul is inherent in the existence of 
man, from his first to his last thought. In fact, if we 
re-ascend the scale of ages in India, what do we find 
among those nations that reckon not 5848 years of exist- 
ence, as we pretend, but 131,400,007,205,000 years 
from the birth of Brama down to our days. In these 
countries — little known, badly explored, still worse 
described — we shall possibly find psychological science 
more advanced than among us." 

In the book entitled " A Picturesque Voyage Round 
the World," we find the following : — 

* * '• Such is a sketch of the Indian 

polytheism. As to the dogmas connected with it, a 
notion of them may be summed up in a universal me- 
tempsychosis ; acertain quantity of spirit and matter, 
each imperishable, is found, according to them, in a 
perpetual state of transmigration. 

" The punishment of spirits consists of a falling off 
in their material envelope. 

"Thus, from the body of man they descend into that 
of beasts, following the progression of animals more or 
less noble, so as to run the risk of dwelling in stones. 
In this comminatory part of their dogmas, the Bra- 
rnins have never entertained the thought of threatening 
^men with a perpetual hell; when we speak to them of 
such a place, they say that it is an insult to the 
Almighty, setting bounds to his right of mercy, pre- 



1 



IMMORTALITY. 85 

judging his justice, and giving him hateful passions 
which are incompatible with his essence. ' However 
great be a crime,' add they, 'the Divine goodness is 
still greater.' 

" This belief in the metempsychosis also serves them 
to explain the contrast of human conditions and the 
inequality of our destinies. With them compensation 
exists not altogether in world, it is in this transitory 
world. 

" That if, destined to the most humble lot, a mortal 
ends a meritorious and pious life, his reward consists in 
being born again rich, honored, amid all the enjoyments 
of luxury and comfort. Thus the Indian metempsy- 
chosis is somewhat mixed up with predestination and 
fatalism ; free-will can not go so far as to efface a word 
of what Brama has written in the head of a man, but 
certain practices, certain expiations, can be set down to 
his account in the record of his good or bad works." 

The above in India seems to be the general religion 
or belief respecting immortality. 

Cicero's Book on Old Age furnishes the following, and 
shows a firm belief in immortality : — 

"I am persuaded that your fathers, those illustrious 
personages whom I so mucli loved, have not ceased 
living, although they have passed through death ; and 
that they are still living that sort of life which alone 
deserves being called by thai name ; for so long as we 
arc 1 , in tin- bonds of the body, we are like slaves at the 



86 IMMORTALITY. 

chain, since our soul is divine, which from heaven, as 
the place of its origin, is cast down, and as it were 
buried in this low region of the earth, which is a place 
of exile and punishment for a substance celestial and 
eternal by its nature. 

* # * # j n sho,.^ when I perceive what activi- 
ty there is in our minds, what memory of the past, what 
foresight of the future ; when I take into consideration 
the number of arts, sciences, and discoveries, to which 
they have attained, I believe, and am fully persuaded, 
that a nature possessing in itself the groundwork of so 
many things can not be mortal." 

Discourse of Cyrus, when on the point of dying, to 
his Children : " Beware of believing, my dear chil- 
dren," said he to them, " that I am no longer aught, or 
that I am no longer anywhere when I have quitted you ; 
for, at the time I was with you, you did not behold my 
spirit ; but what you saw me do made you think that 
there was one within my body. Doubt not, therefore, 
that this spirit will subsist even after it has been sepa- 
rated from it, although no longer perceptible by any 
action. ####=*## 
For my part, I have never been able to persuade my- 
self that our spirits live only so long as they are within 
our bodies ; and that they die when they quit them, or 
that they remain, stripped of intelligence and wisdom, 
when disengaged from a body that has by itself neither 
sense nor reason ; I believe, on the contrary, that when 
the spirit, disengaged from matter, finds itself, in all the 



IMMOItTALITY. 



purity and simplicity of its nature, it is then that it 
possesses most light and wisdom." 

In the same book Cato exclaims : — 

" For my part, I heartily long to rejoin your fathers, 
whom I so dearly loved and venerated ; and not only 
those great men whom I knew, but even those of whom 
I have heard speak, and of whom I have read, or 
whose actions I myself have written. I go, therfore, 
to meet them with so much joy that it would be difficult 
to detain me ; and it would afford me no pleasure to be 
cast over again, like Pelias, to renew me, and enable 
me to recommence life. No, though some god should 
wish to lead me back to childhood, and place me once 
more in the cradle to recommence a new life, I should 
oppose? it with all my might, and from the end of the 
career in which I now am, I should not wish to be re- 
placed at its commencement. * * * * 
Oh ! a happy day will be that when I shall leave this 
impure and corrupt crowd to rejoin that divine and 
happy band of great souls that left the earth before me. 
I shall find there not only those great men of whom I 
bave spoken, but also my dear Cato, whom I can say 
was one of the best of men, of the best of dispositions, 
and one of the most faithful to his duties that has ever 
hern seen. 1 placed his body on the funeral pile, 
whereas he ought to bave placed on it mine. Hut his 
*oul has not left me ; and without losing sight of 
In- has merely preceded m*e into a country where he 
Id thai [should shortlj rej in bim." 



88 IMMORTALITY. 

In Madame Louise Collett's Translation of the Poe- 
sis, we find the following sentence : — 

"O my body! a living Death, nest of ignorance, 
sepulchre I bear with me, garment of sin and grief, 
weight of misery, and labyrinth of errors, thou detain- 
est me here below by caresses and by fear, lest I should 
turn my eyes up to heaven, the good supreme and my 
true abode ; thou fearest that smitten with its beauty, I 
should disdain and abandon thee a dead coal." 

The above seems to be the spirit's longing strains to 
„ be gone from this to a better land, toward which all 
seem to have aspiring thoughts. From the same book 
we extract the following : — 

" By our weak understandings and confined move- 
ments we perceive only the material things which strike 
against the walls of our prison : but things powerful and 
divine escape us, for they would burst our frail 
envelope. 

" We are unable to become acquainted with the 
secret virtues of things, because our organization pre- 
sents an obstacle to our so doing ; the most we learn 
here below possesses but the semblance of truth." 

From Fitche's Book on the destiny of Man, we take 
the following, and it tends to show how the German 
mind desires and aspires for "a better world : — 

" Moreover, it is not from to-day that this conviction 



IMMORTALITY. 89 

exists in me. Long before conscience had spoken with 
its irresistible authority, I could not contemplate the 
actual world for a single instant, without feeling rise 
within me, shall I say hope? shall I say desire? No: 
better than that, more than that — the irrefragihle certi- 
tude of another world. At each glance I let fall on 
man or on nature, at every reflection engendered in my 
mind by the singular contrast of the immensity of man's 
desires and his actual misery, an interior voice would 
raise itself within me and say: — 'Oh ! nothing out of 
all this can be eternal ; be persuaded of it, another 
world exists, another and a better world. * * 

"Such is my life, such is the world; it is a circle 
revolving eternally on itself; it is a fantastic spectacle, 
wherein all is born to die, and dies to be born again ; 
it is a hydra with innumerable heads, never weary of 
devouring itself again. Shall I believe, then, that it is 
in the circle of those monstrous and eternal vicissitudes 
all the efforts of humanity must waste themselves in 
useless efforts ? 

" Shall I rather not believe, that if humanity under- 
goes them, it is but momentarily, with the view of arri- 
ving at a state w hidi shall remain final, in order to reach 
at last a place of rest, where, recovering from so many 
fatigues, it will remain immovable for eternity, above 
the agitated waves of the ocean of a 

The following sente i from the pen of If. 

Amu.'t de Voltaire, Who the isolated religionists tern 
th.- Becond Father of infidels; hut whose mind po 
8* 



90 IMMOETALITY. 

sed higher and nobler aspirations for the In6nite, than 
the narrow minds of such religionists are capable of 
receiving. Yet, if he did not possess right ideas in 
every respect, we will respect his reflections, for the 
high abilities of mind displayed in his reflections upon 
spirit, and immortality. These are his words : — 

" Where is the man, who, as soon as he withdraws 
into himself, feels not that he is but a mere puppet of 
Providence? I think, but can I impart to myself a 
thought ? Alas ! if I thought of myself, I should know 
what idea I should have in a moment; no one knws it. 

" I acquire a knowledge, but I could not have impart- 
ed it to myself; my intelligence could not have been 
the cause of it, as the cause must contain the effect ; 
now, my first acquired knowledge not being in my intel- 
ligence, not being in me, since it has been the first, it 
has been imparted to me by him who formed me and is 
the giver of all, whatsoever he be. 

" I am altogether lost and humbled when I am made 
to perceive that my first knowledge can not of itself 
impart to me a second, as it would be necessary that it 
should contain it within itself. 

" The proof that we do not impart to ourselves any 
idea, is, that we receive many in our dreams, and, cer- 
tainly, it is neither our will nor our attention which causes 
us to think in a dream. There are poets who compose 
verses while asleep, geometers who measure triangles ; 
all this proves to us that there is a power that acts with- 
in us without consulting us." 



IMMORTALITY. 91 

Here again are the reflections of the spiritual minded 
writer, " Saint Martin :" — 

"It is this presentiment of a life to come which, in 
all times has imparted so much strength and elevation to 
virtuous souls, to such men as Socrates, Theramenes, 
Leonidas, Cato, Thraseas, and in an especial degree to 
the martyrs of this holy religion whose fundamental 
doctrine is the immortality of the soul. Man, occupied 
with a boundless felicity which it is permitted him to hope 
for, no longer regards this life but as a fugitive flash 
which escapes and vanishes through light clouds. A 
serene day is beyond, and this day which never night 
will darken awaits him. It is in eternity that he 
beholds what sort of a being is his God, and there it is 
that he recognizes him as supremely good and just. 
Physical evil, with respect to man, is therefore a fresh 
proof of the immortality of the soul ; moral evil still 
adds to this proof, since it supposes a free will, and lib- 
erty in man is an infallible proof of immortality." 

And again he says : — 

" The hope of death forms the consolation of my 
days ; therefore would I that men would never say ' the 
other life,' for there is but one life." 

Chordel, in his essay on Psychology, expresses himself 
thus : — 

"The human soul seems, therefore, a stranger on 
earth — ;i prisoner in ;i new world ; the body lends its 
Organs to perceive it, and life gives it the means of 



92 IMMORTALITY. 

making use of them, but in opening it to the material 
world it closes against it the spiritual one." 

M. Du Potet, in his work of " Philosophical Teach- 
ing on Magnetism," speaking of the soul, thus expresses 
his mind : — 

" The soul — What is a soul 1 Who has ever seen a 
soul 1 Where does it reside 1 Let it be shown to us. 
Words as stupid as would be those of a person who 
should say, ' Where is the wind ? Who has ever seen 
the wind ? Let it be shown to us.' And many seek 
for their soul, as did the man for his horse when on his 
back. Oh ! great geniuses of our time, illustrious 
mortals, strike but a blow on your shell, pain will 
answer you ; you will have the consciousness of your 
existence, you will be warned that there is within you 
something that watches and is uneasy, not your high 
reason ; strike again, and let the blood run, the occu- 
pant will take leave of you, quitting its domicile, and 
none of you will be able to repair it, and set in motion. 
In vain may you cry, the air will resound in vain with 
your cries ; the closed mouth will remain dumb. 
Should it be that of one of your orators, one of those 
mouths that in this world have a reply for all ? Doubt- 
less he who explains, accounts for all, has no need of 
having recourse to the Divinity ; and hence it is that 
savans deny what they can not conceive or explain. A 
trumpery penny mirror, could it but speak on the 
objects it reflects, would reason like our savans ; it 



IMMORTALITY. 93 

would have, however, behind its surface but a little 
mercury and tin : of what, then, are the brains of our 
great men composed ? 

" Before the soul is disengaged from matter, it can 
already converse with pure spirits. God has permitted it, 
but in an imperfect manner. It can plunge its look even 
to the abode of those who have for ever lost the human 
form [material, meant by M. Du Potet ;] it gives up its 
secrets, however, only with very great reserve. " 



INDEX 



This New Phenomena 7 

Q 

DELUSION 

Delusive communication caused by the mind of the per- 
sons present ' 



My Previous Belief. 



I MA (.1 NATION. 



.10 



.12 



Imaginary communication ^ 

UuTiNi; Sounds ...16 

The causes of them explained 16 



Electricity. 



, 16 



Psychology *' 

Clairvoyance 18 



Proof of the same 



.19 



Faculty in all minds »« 

Well at -tested proof of the Clairvoyantc powers of Bwe- 

denborg •' 

Clairvoyance mil explain much of what are taken as 

spirit communical ions M 

Sim km Mam; railed) M 

articles of furniture and other objects 89 

The eausc of lUOfa movements explained t- 



96 INDEX. 

Writing Mediums 43 

Communication purporting to come from Alexander 
Pope 44 

Communication written while in Psychological condition. 45 

Hand Movements in the spirit communications 47 

Spirit 49 

Eternal identity of spirits 50 

Prophecy 51 

Remarkable prophetic dream 53 

Vision 56 

Remarkable Vision, taken from Plutarch's Works 56 

Presentiment 60 

Remarkable presentiment of Princess Nagotsky 60 

Presentiment of Professor Boehm 61 

Remarkable Presentiment 63 

Presentiment — from the Journal of John Wesley 65 

Detachment of spirit from the body 81 

Remarkable case of detachment 81 

Immortality 83 

The belief of Immortality inherent in man's nature 83 

Belief of Immortality in India 84 

Extracts from different writers upon the subject of Im- 
mortality, in different nations 84 



82 











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